Deadly Abandon
by Carnicirthial
Summary: FINISHED!Dracula is back! But this time the score to settle is personal. Who is he trying to hurt? Ashian or Van Helsing? Or maybe it's both. As Ashian sinks lower and lower, Van Helsing has to wonder where to draw the line. Please read and Review!
1. Memories

**_Deadly Abandon_**

Memories

_Ashian watched in horror as the carriage pulled down the wooded lane. Headmaster Jameson had told her that they were taking Van Helsing away, but some part of her hoped he was just lying. As Van Helsing gazed longingly out the small window of his compartment, Ashian attempted to smile, but she figured that between the tears and her swollen eyes, her pinched smile would probably just remind him of the gargoyles that festered in the black forest surrounding the school. Ashian tried to block out her fondest memories, but bloody visions of Van Helsing came flooding in. Among the whirling images one stood out. Van Helsing waiting for her, silhouetted against the moonlight, a gun in his left hand, a silver stake in his right._

_A sinewy hand, weathered from countless hours of scribing and embroidery padded not so softly on Ashian's shoulder. She looked up to find her most hated teacher, Mistress Haung, leering down through her large spectacles. _

"_Come, my dear. You need to find some new friends; friends that don't sneak off in the middle of the night to do ghastly things with innocent young women." Haung's nasally drone wound through the whipping wind that howled like Ashian wanted to. _

Innocent_. Were that she was. Ashian had seen more – experienced more than Haung had ever in her seventy plus years. _

Images blended and feelings mixed until Ashian wasn't sure where she was. There was a sudden spinning and a giant thud.

_Ashian felt her body melt back together as she stared at the bloodied balcony. Suddenly the door to the grand library slammed open and a man rushed in. His vision panned the room and came to rest on her._

"_Thank God you're alright!" He ran, almost flew, towards her and wrapped her in a protective embrace. "I thought for sure that you were dead." Impulsively, he drew her chin upward and gently, then passionately, kissed her._

Ashian woke in her blood soaked bed, and instinctively her gaze shot to the window. Ashian sighed in relief. She never slept past sunset if she could help it, and she had woken just in time to see the beginning of the sun's decent towards the horizon. Ashian ran her hand through her hair when she realized that her bed wasn't wet from monthly bleeding, or even wetting the bed, but from sweat.

"Not again." Ashian brought her head onto her knees. "Van Helsing, where are you? Why can't you leave me alone?"

For the past two weeks now, Ashian had been reliving her childhood in her dreams. Not the whole childhood, mind you, only her most vivid memories of her best friend, Gabriel Van Helsing. It had been twenty or so years since he abandoned her, and for twenty or so years Ashian had kept her emotions locked away in the darkest corner of her mind, but now they refused to stay bottled up.

Looking once more out her window, Ashian got out of her four-poster bed and quickly pulled on her trousers and a loose blouse. She didn't usually get dressed in her normal clothes until she was sure that none of the respectable society would be out, but tonight she made an exception. Grabbing her pencils and sketch pad, she raced up a flight of stairs to her rooftop so that she could draw the sunset and drown her emotions in the sea lead.

Ashian leapt gracefully onto the railing and perched her sketch pad on her lap. She took a deep breath of concentration and let the inspiration take her. Ashian never really knew what she was drawing until she was done, and sometimes she never really knew what she had drawn even after she was finished. Sometimes her sketches would release pent up emotion that had caused her a slip of some sort in combat, and sometimes the passionate need to draw would over power her so that she thought some other being was using her as a medium for self expression. Indeed, it was often in those times that she would draw scenes of battles long past or of shady woodlands a hundred times darker than the forest behind The Magellan Co-ed Boarding College for Young Adults.

The Magellan College. It was a risky place to start. In 1828 boarding schools were never co-ed. It was believed that young people wouldn't be able to control the wild passions of youthful abandon unless properly supervised. But Headmaster Jameson took care of that. In the waking hours the professors surveyed them like hawks, and after hours the students were watched closer than the crown jewels. But that never stopped Ashian and Van Helsing from creeping away. They would sneak out at ten o'clock every night and return at two in the morning to cram in as many sleeping hours as they could get.

Ashian quickly broke her train of thought and looked down at her drawing. It was one of her better works. They always turned out better when she didn't pay attention. Her sketch was of a tall dark figure on a black stallion against the setting sun. The rider's face was hidden by a wide brimmed hat, and a long dark coat flared behind him. The shading of the drawing showed sweat glistening on the horse's flank, hinting that the rider had been pressing it hard. Many of the leading lines in the sketch brought attention to the rider's right hand. The left hand wasn't showing, so Ashian assumed that the rider was headed north. Upon closer examination, however, Ashian noticed a ring on his fore finger. It was a large green stone set in silver that complimented his strong hands. Carved into the green stone and then filled with silver was a winged snake.

Frightened by the sketch, Ashian quickly crumpled it up and tossed it towards the gutter three stories below her. Shaking with surprise, she swung herself of the railings and marched absently back inside. Who was that man, and why was he wearing Van Helsing's ring?

Ashian headed down the three stories of her quaint Paris town home. The top level was more personal rooms that guests were never shown. They included her weapon room, her library and Gabriella's room. The next level held her sleeping quarters, two restrooms, and two very lavishly decorated guest rooms. The final level was made up of a small kitchen, a dinning room, and a fashionable sitting room that sometimes doubled as a ballroom. Tonight the furniture had been pushed back, and a small dais had been set up for the musicians. A quick glance assured Ashian that Gabriella had already set the table with name cards in the proper positions. Ashian shook her head. What would she ever do with out Gabby?

Ashian walked into the kitchen to find Gabriella seated at the small table with the evening post spread out in front of her. She had a plate of peaches and toast set out in front of her, but Ashian knew she wouldn't eat it and dug greedily into the small breakfast.

Without looking up Gabriella began her usual morning report of what the papers said. "Well, it looks like the queen's heath is still an issue, and those two bank robbers are still at large." She folded the paper and pulled to sheets of paper out from underneath her chair. "And look what I found."

Ashian looked up and saw the sketch she had just discarded. Either Gabriella had gone to fetch the paper just after the drawing had left Ashian's sight, or Gabriella had been watching her. "Well, what about it?"

Gabriella leaned forward to examine the crumpled picture. "Who is it?"

Ashian pushed forward her plate. Suddenly she wasn't so hungry any more. "I don't know. But you remember how I drew the Russian Capital before I'd ever been to Moscow? I think the same thing happened here. Except I think I might know who this man is."

"And..." It drove Gabriella insane how Ashian never told the whole story at once.

"I think it's Van Helsing." Ashian didn't look up at Gabriella to see the shocked recognition in her face; she knew it was there.

Gabriella reached underneath the sketch and slowly drew out a wanted poster. "Then maybe you really do need to see this, love."

Ashian looked up from her discarded plate to the poster. Staring at her was a man with a wide brimmed hat and a high collar. It was the same person from her sketch; it was Van Helsing. He was taller, and his long dark hair fell to his wide shoulders. It hardly looked like the skinny boy who had sat next to her in all her classes, but his face hadn't changed. His dark brown eyes still smoldered beneath a soft brow hardened by experience, his nostrils still flared in his almost continual anger, and his mouth was probably still set in a hard grimace. He didn't look like it, but Ashian knew that Van Helsing could be the kindest bloke you could meet. The poster wasn't a very flattering sketch because it was just a portrait pieced together from eyewitness accounts, but still it flooded Ashian with memories of how beautiful he was when he moved.

"Van Helsing, what did you get yourself into this time?" Even though she hardly whispered it, she knew Gabriella had heard her. Looking up at her friend, she let loose a rare show of emotion. "Gabby, what do I do now?"

Gabriella pursed her lips in a show concentration and sighed before answering, "You continue with the party and all the plans attached. Chances are that he's on the other side of the planet, so you need not worry about him." She stood up. "Come on, love. You need to become presentable if this whole affair is to turn out for the best."

Ashian allowed herself to be ushered out of the kitchen by Gabriella, but couldn't help but shiver as her gaze passed over the poster and her picture.


	2. Reunion

Reunion

He blended in with the shadows as he watched the guests arrive. Several guests walked in without so much as a backward glance, but just as many felt his eyes bore holes in their backs. One couple paused as they passed him, but looked in the complete opposite direction. It had always been a skill of his to turn inquisitive away from where they would cause trouble, and recently it had become his face that he would rather them not see. He had started wearing a mask of sorts, just a high, tight fitting sleeve of fabric that covered all but his eyes. But even those got him trouble. The final guest, a young woman of no more than nineteen turned to face him and meet his gaze. Before he could retreat down the street, she smiled and mouthed "We meet again, Gabriel Van Helsing."

Gabriella opened the door for the young woman. "Welcome to me mistress's masquerade party! O' course we usually 'ave it on All Hallows Eve, but Mistress Adelaide was gunna be gone and whatnot, so she 'aven it now. So wonderful of you to come miss. Everyone's out in the Ballroom, so feel free ta join 'em. I'll just be off ta tell me mistress you came after all." If you hadn't met her on a previous occasion, you'd have thought for sure that Gabriella was a dotting old maid from London with graying hair and a stooped back. In reality Gabriella had long red hair and stood taller than most average men.

The young woman simply nodded and allowed Gabriella to take her coat. Music, classical with an almost unrecognizable barbaric taint, floated from the ballroom. She glided into the area and turned all the heads. Young men swamped her, but across the room she saw her host surveying her with a business-like icy gaze. She was the one who caught her attention; she was the one her master wanted. And she was the one her master would be getting.

Ashian might have been watching the newcomer out of the corner of her eye the whole time, but none of the other guests ever noticed. To most of them she was Adelaide Cross, a strong young widow with ties in almost all levels of society. When she had first moved into the area, her social status was undeniable by even the shrewdest of nannies. She could have been a powerful ally and a dangerous foe, but she traveled so often that she never really took the opportunity to ruin any of her "friends" as they so often tried to do to her. Rumors flew about how she was a pagan witch or her affair with a gypsy in Spain, but her house was decorated with Christian symbols and the gypsy of her affairs had never been factually produced. Eventually she came to be regarded as an oddity among society, and was looked upon with pity, but when she threw parties it was quite the treat to be invited.

After dancing and jesting, the dinner bell was rung, and everyone herded into the dinning room. The feast presented was fairly festive, but not stuffed full of delicacies and treats. It was the type of food that delighted the senses and filled the stomach, cooked by unnamed and highly praised chefs. About halfway through the dessert, though, a knock came on the front door, followed by a loud ringing of the doorbell.

Gabriella rushed to the door and opened it to find a dark figure standing in the doorway. He wore a wide brimmed hat, a long dark coat, and his face was covered up to the eyes. His eyes had something familiar in them, something dark. Then it hit her. She knew this man.

Gabriella's eyes widened as she tried not to bolt. "O-one m-m-moment, sir. Ashian w-will be r-right w-w-with you."

She slammed the door and scuttled to the dining room. She paused long enough to gather her wits, and walked as calmly as she could over to Ashian's chair. She whispered that there was a man at the door to see her, but in her confusion, she forgot to mention who it was.

Ashian's brow furrowed for a second, and then she hastily excused herself. Several of the guests were quite perplexed as to what could have concerned their host so, but the strange young woman already knew and smiled slyly to herself.

Ashian rapidly opened the door and found the strange man leaning against one of the decorative posts outside her door. When she opened it he stood erect and looked her up and down. Ashian was wearing a particularly tight dress, and didn't appreciate the look of longing in his eyes. Before she could speak, though, he began.

"Damn, you've gotten attractive." He continued to look her up and down.

Ashian was visibly appalled. She couldn't see much of his face; his eyes were hidden by his hat and though he had taken of the piece of fabric that usually covered his mouth, she still didn't recognize him "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I bet you probably could." His voice was distant, as if he was remembering... or fantasizing.

"Excuse me?!" Ashian slammed the door and threw her back against it as if the stranger would try to force open the door.

"Ashian! Open the door! It's me!" The stranger's voice was muffled by the door, but she still heard it clear enough.

"How do you know me?" She didn't say it very loud, and she had been talking more to herself, but he still heard her.

"We went to school together! All the teachers hated us, we sat in the back of all the classrooms, Mrs. Haung called me a street rat behind my back, and you have a scar on your back from the time a warlock tried to use you as a human sacrifice. Please, Ashian, let me in!" There was a desperate note in his voice, almost childish.

Ashian's eyes grew wide as she spun around and threw the door open. "Van Helsing? Are you Gabriel Van Helsing?" She reached out as if to touch him, but stopped right in front of his chest.

"Yes, Ashian. I'm back." He lifted his own hand and touched hers. There was a small smile on his lips as he pulled her forward into a tight embrace that she willingly returned.

Panting and disbelieving, she led him inside. Noises from the party reached her ears, and she suddenly remembered why the whole evening had been planned. She turned to Van Helsing and quickly said, "Listen, you caught me in the middle of something, but it's almost over. I've got two guest rooms upstairs; pick one and make your self presentable, I'll be up as soon as I can." She gave him another quick hug and trotted, almost ran, back to the dinning room. She sighed when she heard the small creaking as Van Helsing headed upstairs.

She waltzed gracefully back into the room as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, but the young woman grinned at her in a knowing, unnerving way. "Well, I see that you have all finished dessert. Come with me into the Ballroom; there's no need to sit in the dinning room and reminisce about meals long past." She held the door open as everyone filed out.

Gabriella and several people that were helping with the party brought in coffee, cream, and light finger pastries. After several minutes of small talk, the first of the guests began to dismiss them selves. Like a gracious host, Ashian saw them all to the door. Finally she closed the door after the last guest that was intended to leave. The strange young woman was still in her house. She turned to find the red-headed beauty standing about five feet away.

Lifting her chin to expose her neck, the young woman began to speak. "This party was a very clever ruse to bring attention to me. And either way, you win. If I am killed, no one will be any the wiser. And if you die, my face replaces your precious Van Helsing's on the wanted posters. Or we could compromise."

Ashian was in her element now. All the pomp and circumstance of Paris society made her sick, and now it was going to pay off. After tonight she would never have to set foot in France again. "How do you propose we do that?"

The young woman's voice steadily became thick with a Transylvanian accent as she spoke. "My master doesn't want you dead, though I don't know why. One small moment of pain and you never will be." When she finished with her sentence her teeth grew several inches and her jaw unhooked like a snake's.

Ashian had no room on her costume for a weapon of any sort, and they both knew that. The vampire thought that there was no way out for Ashian, but soon saw her mistake. While she had been speaking, Ashian's hand had clutched a half full pitcher of water on the table she had backed up against. In a quick moment she had brought the pitcher in front of her. The vampire paused, perplexed. What was so special about a pitcher of water? Ashian smiled as comprehension dawned on the vampire's face. Without another moment of hesitation, Ashian threw the water on her opponent. She had expected to hear a hot sizzle on contact, but nothing happened.

The vampire laughed as Ashian's eyes darted around the room in search for a weapon to protect herself with. They darted from the table, to the sitting room, to the kitchen, to the banister, and then to the balcony at the top of the stairs that overlooked the main hallway. Van Helsing was watching her with cool, calculating eyes. He reached into his coat and before Ashian could see what he had grabbed, swung his arm in a wide fluid arch. Instinctively Ashian's hand flew up and caught whatever he had thrown. She grinned as the cool feel of a silver stake met her palm. All the while, the vampire had shot forward and begun to sink her fangs into Ashian's neck. Just as her jaw began to close, Ashian plunged the silver stake into where the heart would have been.

The vampire clutched at the handle of the silver stake that protruded from her chest. She let out an inhuman screech while a ghostly wind blew away her remains as she deteriorated. Ashian seized a broom and swept the remains out her front door. She sighed and began to unfasten her elaborate dress as she marched up the stairs. As she passed Van Helsing (who was still leaning on the railing) she muttered what might have been, "I'm going to kill that good for nothing shape-shifting coward."

Van Helsing smiled as he remembered how violently she had cursed after the first time she had fought without him to guard her back. It was nice to know that she hadn't changed that much.

He followed her into the least decorated room on the floor and began to examine an amulet while she changed behind a screen. When she was done he turned around and sat nonchalantly on her desk.

"As obviously planned as that stunt appeared, did you know who that particular leech was?" He shrugged his coat off to reveal a gray turtleneck and black pants with various charms hanging off his belt.

Ashian walked over to the writing table, and ignoring that Van Helsing was sitting on her desk, picked up a small hand mirror. "Yeah, I knew. Not the name or anything, but I knew she was one of Dracula's brides." She was rubbing her neck when she exclaimed, "That little-! She bit me! She actually bit me!"

Van Helsing inclined his neck and peered at the two pinpricks. A small chill ran through his fingers as they met Ashian's flesh for the first time in too many years. "It's shallow; you'll be just fine." He lowered his hand slowly, a little slower than he had intended. Embarrassed, he cleared his throat and went to sit on the bed. "Why doesn't he want you dead?"

"Who?"

"Dracula."

"Probably because with a score to settle like ours he's got better, or in my case worse, things to do to me. But it isn't like I'll be going to Transylvania any time soon, right?" Van Helsing didn't look up at her question. "Right, Van Helsing?"

When he finally looked up his jaw was set in firm line and he voice was slightly more husky than usual. "Ashian, I can't make you do anything you don't want to do. But, yes, I hope that you will come to Transylvania with me."

Ashian sighed and began rummaging in her closet. "You're right; you can't make me do anything I don't want to, but you have perfected the art of sending me on a hell of a guilt trip." She produced a large, leather traveling bag from her wardrobe. "Fine, I'll go. When do we leave?"

Van Helsing stood up and began examining her closet. He muttered, "I've got two train tickets to Italy in the morning." He was now standing next to Ashian, and gave her their old signal to be careful. Slowly he reached into the wardrobe, and jumped backwards as a dead body fell from the back of the closet.

He laughed roughly and shot Ashian a sideways look. "Are there dead bodies in all the closets, or just yours?"

Ashian was glaring at the body with respectful contempt. She began to move it out the door with a series of savage kicks to the ribs. "It's not a dead body. It's that good for nothing shape-shifter with nothing better to do than eavesdrop that I swore I'd kill." The eyes of the body shot open as it scrambled of its feet. "And this time I might just do it."

The corpse had shifted back into Gabriella's most comfortable form. "What do you mean 'good for nothing'? I practically set up the whole party!"

"Yeah? Well obviously you were so busy with self imposed tasks that you forgot to put the holy water in the pitcher." Ashian whirled around and grabbed the discarded travel bag. "You can redeem yourself by helping me pack." She huffed her way past Gabriella in mock contempt. It was a wonderful act, but she really wasn't that mad at Gabby.

Gabriella just let her go. She smiled at Van Helsing and said, "I apologize for my rude behavior earlier. I'm Gabriella; I was the original owner of the house, and Ashian was the only one who would move in with a shape-shifter. We've been friends ever since."

Van Helsing reached forward and gave her out stretched hand a firm shake. "No problem. I've gotten worse receptions."

"GABBY! GET UP HERE! WHERE'D MY PISTOLS GO?"

Gabriella sighed and rolled her eyes. "Has she always been like this?"

Van Helsing gave her a small smile and nodded as Gabriella left.


	3. Explainations

**_Explanations_**

While Ashian and Gabriella were busy packing, Van Helsing made himself at home. He didn't have any luggage to unpack; he'd just be leaving next morning anyway. Instead he went downstairs to get himself something to eat. The dishes had been done, and any left-over food had been thrown out, so he scraped together a meal of warm milk, cheese, and a couple of pieces of bread. It wasn't the most lavish meal, but there wasn't all that much food in Ashian's cabinets. It made sense, though. Ashian was the only person in the house that had to eat on a daily basis, and because she traveled so often it only fit that all her food be the type of stuff that stuck with you in small amounts.

When Van Helsing had finished with his meal he went back upstairs and began to wash up; sort of. Personal hygiene had never been high in his priority list, but seeing Ashian again had made him self-conscious. He got the dirt off his face, and looking in the mirror decided he needed to shave. He never really liked beards, but again, shaving wasn't that high on his priority list.

When he had become halfway presentable, he went back into the lavish room where he had dropped his bag. As he lit one of the lamps he remembered one evening when he and Ashian were out searching for wraiths he had asked her why she seemed so at home in the dark.

Keeping her voice lowered, she had replied, "I can in see in the dark better than I can see in the light." After several more steps she had added, "That probably accounts for why I can only fall asleep in lighted rooms."

Van Helsing had been about to tell her that she might have caught on to something, but the gaggle of gargoyles they had been hunting had swooped down from the trees and attacked. Ever since that night, Van Helsing had found it was actually easier to sleep in the light than the dark.

Van Helsing was shocked back to the present by the shouts and muffled banging that he assumed was Ashian and Gabriella packing.

"GABRIELLA! WHERE ARE THE SILVER STAKES? I CAN'T FIND MY CROSSBOW!"

"IF YOU'D PUT THEM AWAY PROPERLY THIS WOULDN'T BE A PROBLEM!" There was a loud thump followed by, "HERE THEY ARE! HERE, I'LL TOSS THEM DOWN!"

Van Helsing winced as he felt the ceiling vibrate. He guessed that Ashian hadn't caught her crossbow.

"AHHHHH! YOU TWIT! YOU NUMB-SKULLED TWIT! NEXT TIME YOU TOSS A TWENTY POUND CROSSBOW AT ME, DON'T AIM FOR MY HEAD!"

There was a series of shattering noises and heavy crashes that sounded like Ashian and Gabriella were tossing vases at each other. Finally the brutal thuds were replaced by bouts of laughter. Knowing Ashian, she had probably fallen flat on her ass in an attempt to avoid a particularly well aimed blow. Van Helsing shook his head and flopped down on the bed. His eyes had almost closed when he heard the fighting started anew.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M NOT GOING TO ROME?!" apparently Gabriella had finally deducted that she wasn't coming.

There was the muffled attempt of Ashian trying to speak rationally, but she had never really been patient and began to shout as well.

"GABBY, WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE KNIGHTS OF THE HOLY ORDER! THEY'LL STICK A STAKE THROUGH YOU AS SOON AS YOU STEP FOOT IN THE CONFESION BOOTH! THEY MIGHT WORK UNDER THE NAME OF GOD, BUT I DON'T TRUST THEM!"

"YOU'RE GOOD FRIEND VAN HELSING WORKS FOR THEM!"

"DO I HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU? I... DON'T... TRUST THEM!" There was a slamming noise as Ashian stormed out of the weapons room.

Vane Helsing sighed and rolled off the bed. He could sleep on the train. He walked out of his room just in time to find Ashian stomping down the stairs. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him.

"Oh-no; Van Helsing, did you hear that? I thought you were asleep." She hastily wiped tears off her face as she tried to sound light hearted. It didn't work.

Making no move to get out of her way, Van Helsing stayed where he was. "Ashian, I'm tired; not deaf." He waited a couple seconds before broaching the tender subject. "What do you mean you don't trust the Knights of the Holy Order? How do you even know about the Order?"

Ashian rolled her eyes and shouldered past him. "Does it really matter? I know about them, they know about me. That's as far as it goes."

Van Helsing wasn't going to be put off that easily. "Why can't I know? We used to tell each other everything; Ashian, and now you won't even talk about something I obviously have a right to know."

Ashian turned, a confused glazed over her eyes. "Why do you keep doing that?"

Now it was Van Helsing's turn to be confused. "Keep doing what?"

"You keep saying my name. I mean, more than is necessary. You hardly ever called my name, and when you did, it was usually 'You twit! Watch yourself!' or 'Twiggy! Come look at this!' or 'Shut up. He isn't good enough for you anyway.' In fact, if I remember correctly, you were the one who donned me 'Chicken Legs.'"

Van Helsing was beginning to lose his patience. "What on earth does that have to do with the Vatican Church? Stop dodging the subject."

"Answer the question." There was a frosty note in her voice that Van Helsing had seen others pay the price for not heeding. He had suffered for that same mistake.

"Why do I keep saying your name? Because I missed you. I have no idea why, but I missed you." He watched as she visibly defrosted.

Ashian sighed in defeat. "I got a letter two years ago inviting me to join their ranks. However, I declined due to the tendency monks have towards being sexist." Ashian, never one to stand still for very long, began to set aside and examine several knives that lay scattered on her desk. "When they got my response... Well, let's just say that they weren't very happy. I was sent another letter, but this one was from you; allegedly. The basic message was that my dear and long lost friend Gabriel Van Helsing was exceptionally disappointed and wished me a nice stay in Hell. I knew it wasn't real, but it was certainly a shock that you had taken up with overly controlling, pompous fat-heads like them."

Van Helsing couldn't control the look of shock mixed with hurt on his face. "You knew exactly how to find me for _two years, _and you did nothing about it?"

Ashian look of confusion was beginning to mix with anger. "You're acting as if you didn't know as well. In fact, I assumed _you _were the one who told them about me in the first place. I want to know what took you so long to stop by. Am I really so annoying that you couldn't at least stop by and put an end to my worrying?" She snatched the wanted poster off her desk and shoved it into Van Helsing's face. "It's not like you haven't been able to come to Paris; that would have made a halfway decent alibi."

Van Helsing lowered the poster with his forefinger. "Do not accuse me of not caring about you. I lost my memory, and the only clue as to who I was was your photograph."

Ashian looked down, either out of embarrassment or pity. "You lost your memory? You don't remember anything?"

Van Helsing ran an exhausted hand through his hair. "It's gotten better. I can remember back about fifty years, but the rest is hazy."

"Oh. I'm sorry. When did it start coming back?" It was obvious that Ashian didn't feel pity, but she did sympathize with Van Helsing. Before she had gotten planted at the Magellan College she hadn't had a past worth remembering, so she didn't try very hard to recall her childhood.

"About eight months ago." Ashian's head shot up in anger, but before she could begin to shout again he added. "The Order might have known about you for two years, but I was told last week. I came here immediately." Before he knew what he was doing, Van Helsing's hand was stroking Ashian's cheek.

Ashian was just as embarrassed as he was. "Um, what time does the train leave tomorrow?"

"Eight o'clock. You'd better get some sleep." Van Helsing headed for the door.

"Van Helsing?" He paused in the doorway with his back turned, but it was obvious that he was listening. "You really missed me?"

Van Helsing couldn't help but let a small smile cross his lips. "Yes, Ashian. I really missed you."


	4. Of Shoulder Joints and Confessionals

**_Of Shoulder Joints and Confessionals_**

Ashian was woken up at seven o'clock the next morning by a begrudged and leering Gabriella. When she was sure that Ashian was awake she stormed out of the room and gave the door a particularly good slamming.

Ashian was unused to waking during daylight hours. Because most of the things she hunted prowled the streets at night she had kept up her habit of being nocturnal. Seven o'clock in the morning, what a beastly hour to waste energy on. She didn't have much time to get down to the train station, plus she'd have to smuggle Van Helsing onto the car somehow. Why had he bought a ticket for himself if he shouldn't be seen at all? Probably because his conscience wouldn't let him rest if he hadn't. Funny how he could get a way with murder and not loose a wink of sleep, but robbing from the railroad company would bother him so much. Of course she was the same way. Why, just last week she had lied to Gabriella and it had bothered her more than the fact that she was beginning to average four or five murders a week. She needed a vacation.

Ashian's train of thought was broken by the note on her door.

_**Ashian,**_

**_You were still sleeping, so I went ahead to the station. Don't wake up too late; I'll see you on the train. Here's you're ticket._**

_**Van Helsing**_

Great. She was alone in house with a shape shifter who wanted to murder her. Setting her will against the probability that not patching things up with Gabriella would distract her throughout the entire trip, she slid several knives along her black leather boots that reached up to her knees. Most female monster hunters wore their boots up to their hips, but Ashian's style of combat was so heavily dependant on jumping that she couldn't risk the leather making her knees stiff. The rest of her legs were covered with thick, black canvas trousers. Ashian had developed a very nice body over the years, but the way that her pants and boots flaunted it unnerved her. To equalize the effect, she wore a loose blouse that laced up the front. Underneath the loose sleeves she strapped two knives and a pocket pistol. Her main weapons, however, were her large, falcon shaped crossbow (she had gotten it off a dead member of the Holy Order) and her twin pistols that hung at her sides. Obviously the crossbow wouldn't be welcome on civilized society, so it had been stuffed into her travel bag along with a roll of white cloth, a bottle of holy water, and a special disinfectant she had learned about in Istanbul. It would remove any sort of poison from the body except for vampire venom. Short of that, she didn't need anything else; except maybe confidence that the Holy Order wouldn't insist she become a nun or something for penance of past sins.

Ashian examined herself in the mirror. Her outfit was entirely black, except for the glints of silver where her weaponry showed through. She had solved that problem with a large, black leather coat that fell just above the ground. It had two slits, one on each side, to allow for movement and it buttoned at the collar. It had been a very original solution to the odd stares the clothes underneath it got, but after seeing Van Helsing in a very similar outfit, she wasn't so sure if it was safe to dress like this anymore.

Ashian stuffed the train ticket that Van Helsing had left with the note and swung her coat on. Smells of Gabriella cooking wafted up to the second floor landing where Ashian debated having breakfast. She probably shouldn't; this was the first time Ashian and Gabriella had gotten in a real argument, and Ashian wasn't sure if Gabby would try to poison her or not. When she got down to the bottom of the stairs instead of turning right to say goodbye to Gabriella she headed strait towards the front door.

"You weren't going to have breakfast?" Gabby had turned up just as Ashian's hand touched the doorknob.

"I was in a rush, and I, uh, thought you might try to poison me." There was no need to lie to Gabriella about how she felt.

Gabriella was wringing a dish towel in her hands. "Ashian, about last night. I realize where you're coming from, what with Van Helsing showing up and all. I shouldn't have pressed the matter."

"Oh, Gabby, I'm at fault as well; I shouldn't have yelled at you." Ashian let her shoulders sag. "Forgive and forget?"

Gabriella smiled. She obviously hadn't wanted Ashian to leave while they had been fighting. "Forget what? Come here, Chicken Legs." She stepped forward and wrapped Ashian in a sisterly embrace. When she finally let go, her eyes were wet. "Now, you be careful. Just because Dracula doesn't want you dead doesn't mean he'll ignore you. And I slipped an extra silver stake in your pack, because you always loose the one I send pack. Oh, and here's your breakfast." She handed Ashian a sandwich with ham and eggs stuffed between the bread.

Ashian took it gratefully. "Thanks Gabby. You're the best." With one last quick hug she was finally out the door.

Ashian had no real means of transportation to get around London because she was gone so often, and most cabbies would just ignore her if she tried to flag them down. So Ashian shoved the sandwich down her throat and set off for the train station. Using only back alleys when she could help it, she covered a good deal of ground. However, she soon gained some unwanted attention from several Spanish workers that had probably come up for jobs.

At first they stayed several yards behind her, but soon they were only a step or so back. When she turned around to confront them about their odd behavior, one of them jumped forward and swung her bag off her shoulder. He didn't do anything with it, just listened to the cat-calls of his fellows.

"Oh, look at the little French lady! What she got in da bag?"

"I'm not so interested in da bag! Hey Raquel!"

"Whatcha want, Guillermo?"

"Let's see what she got under dat coat!"

"Come on, little French lady, Felipe wanna know whatcha got under dat coat." Ashian gathered that this comment was directed at her (though standing 5'10" with jet black hair and pale skin, she hardly looked French) and that Felipe was the Spaniard in front of her. She decided to let her true colors shine through and reached into her coat. A small grin crossed her lips as the cat-calls increased. They were quickly replaced by angry shouts as she pulled her two pistols from her sides. Felipe dropped her bag and stuck his fists up. Yeah, that would really stop a bullet.

"Holy Mother! Since when do French ladies carry guns?"

"Felipe, you can take her!"

"Hey French lady! Play fair and put down da guns!"

"¡Ciérrele para arriba los bastardos!" This came from Ashian, and I bet you can probably get the basic translation from Spanish to English.

There was a stunned silence followed by a whistle and, "Whoa, I didn't know a French lady could _dat!"_

Ashian turned her attention back to Felipe, who was standing like he'd been struck by lightning. "You," She pointed one gun at him while keeping the other at the two other assailants. "Pick the bag up, march two steps in front of me, head for the train station, and maybe I won't waste a bullet on you."

Felipe bent slowly and hauled the bag up onto his shoulder. Walking stiff and untrusting, he headed for the train station. Ashian had put her guns away, but if she needed to could pull them out faster than any American gunman. After several blocks, they entered the train station. Ashian led Felipe to her platform and took her bag. He attempted to walk away as calmly as he could but jumped when Ashian called after him.

"Felipe! I'm not done with you yet." He turned apprehensively and winched as if expecting to be shot when she reached into her coat. She pulled out several Francs and tossed them in his direction. He looked up in shocked gratitude. "Thank you for your help." Before he could say anything she climbed into the car and then to the compartment where she had seen Van Helsing watch her. She lifted her bag on to the luggage rack and sat down next to him.

Van Helsing spoke first. "Well, that was very chivalrous of you."

Ashian shrugged off her good deed. "Ah, I had a few extra Francs and he won't be worse off for having them. Besides, I need every blessing I can get. He'll probably end up helping me more than I helped him."

"Suit yourself." Van Helsing began to play with his ticket stub. "So, did you patch things up with Gabriella?"

"Yeah, she's fine. Besides, after Xiomara's murder, she's probably not too anxious to go to Transylvania." Ashian grabbed a book from her bag and settled herself in the corner.

"So you _did _know who she was!" There was a bemused look on Van Helsing's face.

Ashian winced when she realized she had let the cat out of the bag. "Yeah, I knew. But I figured if you knew how serious Dracula is beginning to take me... well, I figured that you'd worry."

Van Helsing sighed and looked up as if to ask God for help. "Well, I am worried. You should have come to Rome even sooner. He's been sending up his brides after you? How many have you killed?" He waited for the conductor's shouts to die down; they had just left the platform.

Ashian coughed to conceal her answer. Van Helsing gave her a sharp look and she caved. "Two."

"Two?! No wonder he's sent his brides after you!" His raised voice was beginning to draw attention so he lowered it to an angry whisper. "This has gotten out of control, Ashian."

Ashian's voice went hard. "Well, what do you suggest I do about it? This isn't game, Van Helsing. I can't just quit and call it a day. I –" Ashian was cut off by a young child's scream, and before Van Helsing could look past her to see what the problem was she was out the door.

Several compartments down a young Spanish boy, probably headed home, had been putting his luggage on the rack when it had collapsed and buried him under baggage. One of the attendants was clearing luggage off of him when Ashian came rushing in. She immediately hosted off the last suitcase and helped him up onto the seat. He was clutching his arm and moaning, "¡Oh, mi brazo! ¡Mi brazo lastima tan malo!"

"Where does it hurt?" Ashian spoke very slowly so that he could understand her.

It took a moment, but he finally translated her question and pointed to his shoulder. She gently moved his arm, which caused him to scream in agony again. Being careful not to cause anymore pain, she gently prodded his shoulder. Gently she lifted him up from the seat and led the boy back to her compartment.

Van Helsing had been trying to remain inconspicuous and had stayed in the compartment. "What happened?"

Ashian began rummaging in her pack. "I don't know, but he dislocated his shoulder. You're going to have to help me by guiding it back into the socket." She finally found what she was looking for; a box of bullets. She removed one and turned towards the boy. In rough Spanish she explained what they were going to do. It would be painful, so to help distract him he would bite down on the bullet while Ashian held him steady and Van Helsing relocated his shoulder. Whimpering in pain, the boy listened and finally nodded in agreement.

Ashian handed the bullet to the boy and wrapped him in a tight embrace to keep him from squirming. The young boy clenched his jaw around the bullet and his small hand found Ashian's. She looked up and counted silently to Van Helsing, "One, Two, Three." Van Helsing pulled hard on the boy's arm and used the momentum to put it back in the socket. The boy spat the bullet across the compartment, but the procedure was over before he could scream. Instead he turned around and buried his face in Ashian's shoulder. Sympathy pulled at Van Helsing's heart strings. Suddenly he found himself back about twenty years.

"Damnit! Don't touch it! You've done enough damage already. I'll just have the nurse look at it." A younger looking Van Helsing clutched his arm in pain. He had thrown a punch at Veronna in an attempt to get her off of Ashian. It hadn't done any damage, but she was so surprised that she twisted his arm on shot back off to Transylvania. He had sunk against a tree trunk in pain, and began shouting at Ashian for being stupid when she rose from the feeding trance. Dizzy from blood loss, she had caught her breath and then attempted to help Van Helsing. Surprisingly, he was rather touched. It didn't show, but he was touched.

"Oh yeah, I can already picture that conversation: 'Young man, how did this happen?'

"'Well, Ashian and I were out hunting Vampires, and Veronna twisted my arm wrong. Ashian told me not to come here, but you understand, don't you?'

"'Oh of course I understand, and would please come over here. I need to see if this straitjacket will fit you.'"

Van Helsing grinned internally, but his scowl stayed glued to his face. "Shut up."

"Oh, you're such a baby. Now hold still." Before he could protest, she popped his arm back in place. She then ripped off a large section of the discarded coat that Veronna had ripped off of her and knotted together a make-shift sling. She then proceeded to carry back all of his misplaced weaponry and had made an excuse to the school nurse as to why his arm was in such a bad condition.

Neither Van Helsing nor Ashian had ever spoken again of his moment of weakness, but it was the first memory to come flooding back after Dracula had been _supposedly _murdered.

Van Helsing shot back from his memories by the pain filled whimpers of the boy. When Van Helsing had dislocated his shoulder he had been cursed with the body of a sixteen year old, but had still known he was the left hand of God, had still had the mind of an adult. This child couldn't be more than thirteen years old, and this was probably the most severe injury he had ever experienced.

Van Helsing reached up and dug the roll of white cloth out of Ashian's bag. He had once asked her why she always used white linen for bandages, and she had replied it was so that she would know when the blood had soaked through. It was probably because a black bandage had a somewhat depressing effect. Van Helsing cut off a long strip of the cloth and looped it into a sling for the boy. He knelt down and slipped it tenderly around the boy's arm and his neck. Ashian gave him a grateful smile and helped the boy onto his feet.

"Is esos el asesino Van Helsing?" The boy was gazing with wide eyes at Van Helsing's dark figure.

"He es un asesino, sí. Pero él ha ahorrado mi vida más épocas que puedo contar. Usted ha visto a lado mejor de él; ruegue que usted no necesite verlo cuando él está enojado para él protegerá los que él ama con la ferocidad de un lobo." Ashian led him back to his compartment before he could ask anymore questions.

When she came back Van Helsing looked at her inquiringly. "What did you two say?"

"Oh, he asked if you were the murderer Van Helsing." Ashian settled in a corner with her book that she had intended on reading.

Gabriella wasn't the only one who got annoyed with Ashian's story telling tactics. "And what did you say?"

"I said, 'Yes, he is the murder Van Helsing. But he has saved my life more times than I can count. You have seen him at his best; pray that you will never have to see him when he is truly mad for he will protect the ones he loves with the ferocity of a wolf.'" Ashian fell silent and buried herself in her novel.

"You said that? Van Helsing had known that Ashian could be very moving when she spoke if she was passionate enough about her subject, but he had never know her to speak that way about him.

"Mmhmm." Ashian was obviously in no mood to talk, so Van Helsing didn't press her.

Instead he decided to test the tender moment. He sat down next to her and pulled his hat down over his eyes and pretended to sleep. When the train rounded a corner, he fell down so that his head was just barley in Ashian's lap. He expected for her to shove him off and continue with her novel, and almost sat back up when she didn't. Rather, she shifted her position so that he was more comfortable, and after time began to wind her hands absentmindedly through his hair. He had been considering a hair cut, but now it seemed like a bad idea.

Van Helsing led Ashian up the steps of the Vatican Church, watching her out of the corner of his eyes.

"Here's an idea: why don't you go grapple with the Knights of the Holy Order, and I'll wait for you at the docks." Ashian turned around and began to leave, but Van Helsing grabbed her arm before she could make any real progress.

"You act like their going to sign you up for a ten day cruise in Hell. Relax; Jinette will probably be glad to see you." Van Helsing was behind her now and began to push her inside.

"Right, and Lucifer just called in; apparently it started snowing in Hell." Ashian didn't put up much of a fight, but she _really _didn't want to stand in that stupid confessional and wait for a secret door to get opened.

"Don't curse; we're in church." Van Helsing gave her shoulder blades a shove and closed the confessional door behind her.

"Van Helsing! What on earth do you think I'm going to do in here?" Ashian's knuckles were white form trying to force open the door, but Van Helsing had always been bigger than her, as well as physically stronger.

"Well, seeing as it's a confessional, I suggest you begin to confess." Van Helsing gave the door a shake as if to dislodge Ashian's hands.

"Of what?! If you think for one moment that I'm going to stand here and drone on about what an awful little girl I've been you must be off you're rocker."

"Come, my daughter, tell me of what you have done to find yourself in this confessional." An old man's voice thick with an Italian accent came from the other side of the confession booth.

"I befriended the coot know as Van Helsing. Jinette, let me out of this damn confessional, or so help me!" Ashian was attempting to pry Van Helsing's hands off of the door when the grate between Jinette and Ashian slid up.

"Daughter, you are in the house of the Lord. You should not speak like that." There was a gleam in Cardinal Jinette's eyes that suggested he enjoyed watching people squirm under the spot light.

"Fine, I beg the Lord's forgiveness. Now let me out of this damn box." It was obvious that Ashian hadn't meant her half-hearted repentance, but Cardinal Jinette realized he would get no where with this. Besides, Ashian looked ready to jump over the door to the confessional. He pressed the button and the stone wall slid up revealing a torch lit stairway. Van Helsing nodded her forward and she followed Jinette downward.

They went down for several feet when the staircase opened up to a large room where all sorts of scientifically geared equipment whirred and monks in robes buzzed about. It reminded Ashian of a giant hive. Jinette led them to a table with several pictures and next to it stood a projector.

"Gabriel, I know that you are well versed in Dracula's history, but how much has your companion been told?" Jinette began to prepare several slides for the projector.

"I didn't tell her anything. I didn't need to. Ashian knows more about Dracula than any other person alive." Jinette dropped the slides he was holding and gave Ashian a most undignified stare.

He took several minutes to compose himself, but then said rather loftily, "Fine, but do not blame me for her ignorance. Carl is going to be coming with you again; perhaps he will be of some help. I suggest you pack quickly, you have passage on a boat that leaves this evening."

Ashian gladly stepped away from the Cardinal, but Van Helsing held back. "I'll be right there. Carl is the one with red hair, go get yourself acquitted." Ashian shrugged and went to go meet the mysterious Carl.

"Is there a problem, Gabriel?" Cardinal Jinette waited to address him after Ashian was out of earshot.

"You seemed... apprehensive around Ashian." Van Helsing stood his ground, but he still towered easily over Jinette.

"I do not trust her. I know not whom she serves, but it is not God. Beware, Gabriel. Her methods may be effective, but do not forget that despite her rouge tendencies, you are still the left hand of God."

"I trust her. I trust her with my life. Yes, she is unorthodox, but she despises Dracula on a very personal note. She won't fail."

"Ah, she sounds very similar to Anna Valerious. Did Anna not give her life to save you from the curse of the werewolf? Is Ashian willing to do the same? Are _you _willing to make that sacrifice?" Cardinal Jinette's eyebrows were raised inquisitively.

"Yes." He wasn't sure which question he was answering, but Jinette had given him enough to think about.

Carl was examining a sample of gargoyle skin when he felt a tap on his back. He turned around and found lady examining him. No, she wasn't a lady. Just like Van Helsing wasn't a gentleman. She might have been Van Helsing's sister for her appearance. Except for her face. The only thing it held in common with Van Helsing's mug was that desperate look of wanting to curl up and forget about evil for one measly moment. But where Van Helsing's face showed a hardened hope and belief that good will prevail, this woman's face held a dying trust in the Lord and his proclaimed set of rules. She looked as if when push came to shove that she would drop humanity to save what she could.

"Oh, hello. You must be Ashian Valcon. Van Helsing told me about you." Carl took off his dragon hide gloves and gave her hand a hearty shake.

"Did he now? What all did he tell you?" Ashian was easily taller than Carl, but if he stopped hunching he would most likely stand a few inches taller than her.

"Not much. Van Helsing isn't very talkative, but he did tell me you went to school together, so you probably already knew that. One thing he didn't tell me: how on earth did he go to school with you if he's the left hand of God?" Carl was staring nosily over her shoulder at her pack.

Ashian swung the leather sack off her shoulder and laid the contents out for Carl to examine. "The way he explained it to me was that a warlock set a curse on him behind his back. Somehow that curse went awry, and instead of killing him it simply made him go through childhood all over again. Because he didn't have any parents to speak of he got adopted – be careful, the release it on the bottom so I just have to slam it against something in mid-fight." Carl had been examining one of her silver stakes, and the way he had been holding it would have made it very easy to poke out his eye.

"That's ingenious! Did you make this?" Carl was playing with the release on the silver stake.

"No, it was Gabriella's idea. Anyway, he got adopted, but through his various adventures his 'parents' got killed and the left over money was used to send him to the Magellan College. That's where we met, quite obviously. He was the one who taught me how to fight, and not a day too soon." Ashian was about to continue, but Van Helsing walked up behind Carl.

"Carl, stop playing with Ashian's toy's and pack up. We're going to Transylvania and the boat leaves in several hours." Carl jumped at the noise, but disregarded Van Helsing and began to shove weaponry into a bag.

"Van Helsing, please define 'we.' I really hope that 'we' doesn't mean 'we three'" Carl watched Van Helsing out of the corner of his eye as he packed.

"Oh, you're coming. But you should be happy. If I remember correctly there's a certain barmaid who has probably missed you." Carl went rigid and blushed the instant he understood Van Helsing's meaning.

Ashian laughed openly at the reaction. "A barmaid? Carl, you're a monk."

Van Helsing raised his eyebrows and said in mock seriousness, "No, he's still just a friar."


	5. Madame Frescona

****

YEAH!!!!!! reviews make me HAPPY : ) Keep em' coming. Oh, I've reread a bunch of the stuff I've already posted, and sorry 'bout all the grammar and spelling mistakes. Now, although ya can't see it, I'm down on my knees begging you for reviews. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'Kay, I'm back in the chair.

_**Madame Frescona**_

"_Gabriel. Oh, Gabriel." Van Helsing pressed against whatever was behind him. It was warm, soft, and shorter than he was, but no matter how safe it made him feel, it couldn't block out Dracula's singsong voice. But soon, his vision came back and the voice faded into an awful scream. But something wasn't right. Colors seemed duller and details stood out in sharper contrast. His mouth was wet with blood, but there was something odd about that to. It tasted wrong. Van Helsing had tasted his own blood on many occasions, usually during fights. And the last time he had kissed Ashian; there had been blood in both their mouths then. But this was different. Sharper, bitter, and it rang in his mouth with an almost evil feeling._

_Oh no._

_He looked down. The soft thing he had pressed himself closer to was Anna's dead body. Her glassy eyes staring at him, asking why. He couldn't take it; not again. Just when he felt he would explode from grief, the body changed. It became taller, more streamlined, the hair straitened, and the outfit became all black with awful gashes and rents in the fabric. Blood still flowed freely from the wounds. It was Ashian._

_Van Helsing clamored to stop the bleeding, save her in anyway possible, but as he feverishly worked he realized she had no pulse, and breath had not moved her body in a deadly long time. She was dead. In all likely hood, it was probably him who had been her undoing; again. Why did his loved ones always die? What was this curse that God had bestowed on his left hand? It was not fair. Overcome with grief, Van Helsing clutched Ashian's dead body to him, oblivious to the blood on her. Pressing her as close as he could, he buried his face in her wet hair and cried. Not the long sobs that had wracked his body when Anna died, but soft cries and fresh tears that left him feeling hollow of all emotion. Soon, crying to Ashian's limp corpse, he was sixteen again. Ashian hadn't known it, but as he was trapped in a young body, all the insecurities had come too. And they were back. He wanted more than anything to feel someone else embrace him, listen to his complaints, and be strong when he felt weak. Ashian had done that for him, but now he was alone; again._

Van Helsing shot up in the small cot that had come with the cabin. Above him Carl snored loud enough to wake the dead, and across the room Ashian was tossing in a nightmare of her own. What tormented her? She had no memories of awful battles past, or images of loved ones lying dead in her arms. She had always been able to cast away any memories that had troubled her. What was left to haunt her nightly visions?

Van Helsing cut off his musings; they never led to any good. Instead he splashed his face with a bowl of cold water and began to wring out his long, damp hair. He jumped when Ashian sat bolt upright in her bed.

"No! I'm not going to wear that bloody dress, you freak!" Ashian's eyes roamed the dark cabin unseeing.

Van Helsing chuckled under his breath at Ashian's antics. He remembered how much she had hated wearing dresses at school and wasn't surprised to learn that she was still traumatized by Mistress Haung stuffing her gangly figure in to a corset. "Relax Ashian; no one is going to make you wear a dress."

"Thank the lord! What an awful nightmare! First, I was being chased around London by Dracula, and then it became the Magellan Co-ed. Next thing I knew, Haung was trying to stuff me back into that repulsive school uniform." Ashian sat herself against the wall and watched Van Helsing dig around in a pile of luggage for his shirt. "Where did you get that?"

Van Helsing looked up from his search when Ashian spoke again. "Pardon?"

"That scar; it looks like you got bitten. Bitten by something big." Ashian was staring at the large white scar that wrapped around his chest.

Van Helsing finally found his shirt and hastily put it on. He wasn't fond of his daily reminder about his trip to Transylvania two years ago. He muttered, "Werewolf bit me a couple of years ago."

"What happened?!" Ashian smacked her head on the low ceiling on her bunk.

"A werewolf bit me. But the antidote was gotten into me before I could do extensive damage." Van Helsing had hoped that she wouldn't find out about his hour of desperation last time he was in Dracula's territory.

"Hold on, _extensive _damage? As in you did damage but it wasn't extensive? Who'd you kill?" Ashian rapidly pulled her boots on and she was dressed. She didn't believe in nightgowns or night clothes at all.

"I killed Anna Valerious, alright?" Van Helsing swung his coat on and stormed out of the ship's small cabin.

Carl finally woke with a start. "What happened?" But he was speaking to no one in particular; Ashian had grabbed Van Helsing's hat and followed him out onto the deck.

Ashian looked up and down the deck of the boat. Sailors scurried around in the rigging as they made ready to go to shore. Van Helsing was leaning against the railing looking out at the Romanian shore. His brown hair was whipping in the sea breeze as he stared mournfully to the port. Ashian came and stood next to him, playing with the contours of his hat where he would be able to grab it when he wanted it. Eventually his gaze rested on her weathered hands feeling his hat over. So many scars, so many hardships, and she was hardly a tenth of his minimum age.

"I'm sorry." Ashian's voice broke the silence. "I shouldn't have pried."

"You would have anyway." Van Helsing took his hat back and began to run his own hands over it.

"Yeah, your right. But even if I hadn't, you would have told me eventually." Ashian ran her hand through her hair when Van Helsing didn't respond. Instead of waiting for a reply that wouldn't come, she began again. "You're not the only one with secrets, you know. Did you know I spent four years in China?"

"No; I didn't."

"Well, I can certainly say I did my fair share of damage there. Killed a fair amount of innocents on accident as well." Ashian looked up to see how Van Helsing would respond.

"Why are you telling me this, Ashian?" There was a clammed up sort of feel to Van Helsing's words.

"Just thought you ought to know. And to let you know that you're not the only one with a guilt ridden conscious. We're very similar, Van Helsing. But you know the difference between us? Murder has completely killed my regard for human life. We have the same purpose in the end, but you do it to save strangers."

Van Helsing finally put his hat on. "Oh? And why do this task no one has assigned you? What ties you to this ungratified job?"

Ashian smiled at his questions. "To protect what little evil hasn't taken away from me. There is precious few that can't be taken away from me, and to hear of someone robbing themselves is awful. This Anna Valerious, she was obviously very dear to you, and to hear that you were her undoing scares me. Not because I know you could very easily kill me as well, but because I can with sparse difficulty see myself doing the same thing to you. I thought I lost you once, I don't want to do it again." Ashian let the words sit for awhile and then left to go see about breakfast.

Van Helsing called after her without turning. "Ashian Adelaide Valcon, you surprise me. Thank you." Ashian grinned and continued down the steps.

Several hours and many more badly bruised sailors later, Van Helsing and Co. were on shore. Ashian went into a shop to see about a silver knife that was advertised as being able to extend to three feet in length, while Carl went off to inquire about available lodgings in the next town they were to stop in. Van Helsing was alone, and when he was done buying three of the fastest horses available, he had about an hour to spend as he saw fit. He didn't usually find time for himself, but with an extra person on the team, things were easier. What should he do? There was bar, but he wasn't really in a mood to get drunk. Perhaps he should see what the weaponry shop had available? No, he had enough armaments to equip a small army.

Looking around at the town he saw a small hut with dark curtains over all the windows except one. The only uncovered transom was filled by the face of an old woman watching him. Over the door read an old and battered sign that read: "Madame Frescona: Reader of Palms, Prophesier of Futures, and Mender of –" The last word was unclear, smudged over by bird droppings and dark mud. Intrigued, Van Helsing went to go check the store out.

Van Helsing entered the small hut and was overcome with the desire to retch. The small building reeked of burnt garlic and musty decay. The entire place felt as if he was the only person short of Madame Frescona to ever set foot in the room for a decade.

"It has been twelve years, actually, Mr. Van Helsing. So why do you enter my domain? You are unaccustomed to free time, and you felt no desire to get drunk or arm yourself even further. But I know the reason, even if you do not. You are unnerved by how different your friend has become. She was once an innocent young child who thought that gargoyles were just stone statues, but because you taught her to fight, she is now a ruthless murder with no guidelines or sense of when to stop for her greatest profit. All she knows is that the world is evil, and she must fight that evil by any means possible. And she is right. If it were not for the sparse few who protect this world, Ashian would be no more than a pretty pet to be bought and sold by vampires, and other, darker things." Madame Frescona sat in the darkest corner of the room, and Van Helsing could see only her eyes in the smoky darkness.

"How did you - When did you - What is going on here?" Van Helsing's hand flew to his twin pistols, but he began to wonder if a silver stake would do more damage to the old crone.

"I beg your pardon! I am most certainly _not _an old crone! As for that silly silver stake, I suggest you put it away whilst you still have a choice in the matter. As for your question, I do believe that you are in _my _house without an invitation, so you are not in any position to ask questions. However, to keep you from losing your temper twice in one day, I will permit you one question, or I will continue to psycho-analyze your mind."

Van Helsing lowered his silver stake somewhat reluctantly as he pondered which question to ask. She could somehow hear his thoughts, and that alone was unnerving, but there was no need to ask her to explain that. No, he'd ask her about the sign. "Your sign says that you are the mender of something. What do you mend?"

"Ah, that is a very wise question. Has anyone ever told you that you have a considerable amount of dumb luck? Well, you do. As to what I mend, it isn't anything ordinary, which you have probably guessed. No, I mend minds. It is a very long and difficult process, but I do it when it must be done. You have probably already noticed by now, but I can read a mind like the daily post. Yours, oh left hand of God, is no different. The mind is like a complex whorl with many underlying levels and hidden passages, and when the pattern is thrown array by some evil thing, it is my job the shape it, form it back into its original shape."

"You can fix minds." Van Helsing lowered himself into a vacant chair. The statement had been more to himself than to anyone else. "Can you fix my mind?"

Madame Frescona chortled at his question. "I was wondering when you would get to that. No, Gabriel, I can't fix your mind, because nothing is wrong with it. Yes, you have no memory of who you once were, but that is a part of the pattern that has not been damaged, but rather, locked away from you. You must find the key, Gabriel, and it is near to you already. Very near, but you are steadily pushing it away. Be cautious of who you keep distanced, because as of late you have blundered all of your opportunities to bring back your past."

Van Helsing slumped in his small chair, unable to decipher the riddle. Finally he said, "Well, it is going to have wait."

"Ah yes, Count Vladislaus Dracula has returned again. Well, that would actually be the incorrect term, because he never really left. His brides did, however, and it is completely beyond me how he resurrected them. I believe he also gained two additionally brides over the past two years; Xiomara and Sonwaja. Xiomara has been done away with, indeed it was Ashian who struck the final blow, was it not? You had best beware this new one, Sonwaja. I hear she has quite the temper."

Van Helsing interrupted while she stopped for breath. "What do you mean he never left?"

Madame Frescona looked rather indignant at the question. "Why, just what I said. He never left. What made you think that a werewolf could kill him? Another vampire, yes, but him? No, his only weakness is emotion, and he has none. The vampire that you killed was merely an imposter. When he appeared to shift to his demon form, he was actually replacing his body with some other leech to get you off his back. Now, I do believe that our visit has come to an end, and your companions are beginning to look for you. Oh, and don't let my words distract you. Just do what you feel is right." With that Van Helsing felt himself being pushed out of the small hut by an invisible force. He landed on his hands and knees, and when he looked back at the hut, it was gone.

((Review or face the wrath of the Flying Bannannas!))


	6. Back in the Land of Transylvainia

Hey! where are my reveiws! please, I need them! I can't keep writing unless I know people like it! By teh way, teh diolough might be hard to stomache, but teh next chapet is _muy fantastico!_ Sorry, i kinda got Spanish on da brain. Anyway, read on, oh fellow fans.

_**Back in the land of Transylvania**_

"Hmm. You know, she has an excellent point. How did Marishka come back?" Van Helsing had just finished telling his story about Madame Frescona while he, Ashian, and Carl traveled toward the small town where he ha first met Anna.

"I, personally, am less concerned about the two dead brides and more about the three ones that still live." Carl rode behind Van Helsing and Ashian (who were currently side-by-side) where he could listen to the conversation and comment occasionally, but was free to explore his own thoughts.

"Carl, I would think that you would be concerned with the whole you-thought-he-could-be-killed-by-a-werewolf affair. I still can't believe that you fell into that particular trap. It really is a pity that the Order didn't seek me out earlier." Ashian tried to keep the smugness out of her voice, but Van Helsing heard it nonetheless.

"You're so fickle. One minute you're cursing about how you want the Order to leave you the bloody hell alone, but when you finally get the chance to prove yourself superior, you spend your time acting like you never resented them at all." Van Helsing stood up in the saddle and stretched his sore legs as much as you could on a horse.

"Umm, so?" Van Helsing shook his head at Ashian's childish reply. "That isn't the problem right now. We need to find Dracula and exploit his weakness. Once we do that, Lucifer can have someone to discuss being the most hated and evil thing in creation with."

"What weakness? Last time we thought we had found one, it turned out to be Dracula's trump card." Carl slumped in his saddle. He didn't like horses, he thought they smelled worse that the kitchens at the Vatican.

"Madame Frescona has taken care of that for us, Carl. She said his weakness is emotion." Ashian was pulling apart the fringing on her reins.

"True, but Madame Frescona also pointed out that he _has_ noemotion. So how do we exploit somethings that's not there?" Van Helsing looked expectantly over at Ashian.

"I don't know. But there has always been more than one way to skin a cat, and I intend on finding the second." Ashian kicked her horse out of a trot and into a canter to avoid further questioning from her companions.

They rode in silence for the rest of the morning, and Carl estimated that if they kept on the trail and didn't stop, they should be in town by mid-afternoon. Unfortunately, in a profession where your ratio of friends to enemies is almost identical to that of macho men to girly-girls at a Meg Ryan film, you're bound to run into trouble.

Ashian pulled her horse to a dead standstill, causing Van Helsing and Carl to yank a little harder than necessary back on their mounts. Motioning at Van Helsing to be silent, she pulled out her crossbow, and was about to douse the tips in Holy Water when three beautiful women landed in a circle about her. Ashian's crossbow went flying, landing at the feet of Van Helsing's stallion. Before he could do anything, Ashian was speaking.

"Let me guess. This was a customs examination, and I failed to pass, right?" Ashian was looking out from underneath her brow to keep her neck guarded.

"Don't be ridiculous. Count Dracula wishes for your company, that is all. Alas, to reach his abode, you must be one of us." This came form the new bride, Sonwaja.

Ashian was fiddling with her coat pocket in plain sight, which drew the attention of Verona. She yanked Ashian's hand out into the open to find pointed cross. Ashian grinned and tossed it at the nearest bride like a ninja would toss a throwing star. They all leaped into the trees to avoid the shot, leaving Ashian unguarded. She rushed over to Van Helsing, who had dismounted and was aiming his own crossbow at Aleera. His mouth moved in a warning, but before the sound reached her, Sonwaja had grabbed her shoulders and began to carry her upward. Ashian's arms were unmovable, so instead she began to swing her weight back and forth. This threw Sonwaja off balance, who tossed Ashian to Verona. Ashian used the momentum to swing feet into Verona's face. There was a small catch in the back of her heels that would extend a blade from the bottom of each shoe. Verona dropped Ashian in pain, sending her to drop a good twenty feet back to the forest floor.

Back on ground, Van Helsing had been attempting to spray Aleera with Holy Water, but so far he had only managed to purify the bark of several oaks. He paused in his squirting attempts when he heard a series of bumps, thuds and pain filled grunts from Ashian as she plummeted to the ground. Fortunately, the tree branches and ground seemed to break her fall. Ouch. Van Helsing sprinted to where Ashian had landed in a misshapen heap. Her nose had been broken and the area under her eyes began to match the rest of her scratched and bruised face.

Ashian sat up with the help of Van Helsing, and began to mold the cartilage so that when it healed it wouldn't be too misshapen. "Oh sh-" But Ashian never finished that particular curse, because Aleera dove down from the treetops and slammed Van Helsing against a tree not far from where Carl huddled with the horses (who were attempting to bolt) at the same moment that Sonwaja grabbed Ashian's neck. At first she began to struggle, but soon the feeding trance completely enveloped her.

At the other end of the clearing, Van Helsing had actually landed with his hand on a rusted, but still usable, silver stake. He grimaced and sent the stake into Aleera's heart and listened to her cackles turn into screeches. Sonwaja looked up from where she fed on Ashian. She shot her head up and echoed Aleera's unearthly screech as she shot toward the heavens with her only remaining sister.

Van Helsing rolled his shoulders and slowly headed for Ashian. She lay completely limp, so far not filling Van Helsing with a decent amount of hope. He released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding as Ashian sat groggily up and put her head between her knees. Quickening his step, he watched as she rocked unsteadily form blood loss. It seemed that every time Ashian was bitten, she recovered faster. He was sure that it had something to do with the vampirc venom in their saliva and was convinced that if she pulled that particular trick too many time she would become a vampire as well.

"Can you stand?" Van Helsing slid his arm under Ashian's for support as she hobbled to her feet.

"Yeah, but we might have to tie me to the saddle," Ashian murmured.

"You really need to stop letting them do that." Van Helsing cupped his hands so that Ashian could climb into the saddle easily. Normally she would vault onto the horse, but right now she could hardly stand.

"Not now, Van Helsing." Carl was holding the front of the spooked animal, causing Van Helsing to jump slightly at the noise. "She knows what she did; you don't have to lecture her."

Van Helsing was considerably taken aback by Carl's admonition, and stayed sullenly quiet for the remainder of the trip. As they began to approach the town the road widened again, and Van Helsing took the opportunity to speak with Ashian.

"How's your nose?" Van Helsing began speaking more to keep her from passing out then from interest; with all the vampire venom in her blood her nose would most likely heal up in a week.

"Bloody." Ashian's response was muffled by a bloody handkerchief that Carl had produced generously after several attempts to mop up the blood with various strips of fabric out of her bag.

"Are you still dizzy, or could you..." Van Helsing trailed off. He couldn't think of anyway to refer to her gift without gaining an icy glare.

"Do the squirrel routine? Maybe, as long as I don't have to take anything or anyone –" this comment was pointed at the eavesdropping friar "- with me."

"Ashian, you know very well that I always object when you 'do the squirrel routine.' Besides, you're already a mess. I don't want to put you into an even worse situation." Van Helsing was well aware of the fact that he sounded like the worrisome parents he had so loathed, but the words were out of his mouth before he could do anything about it.

Ashian grinned, which caused her to wince in pain, and shot Van Helsing a sideways look. "Oh, stop worrying. The purpose of life is not to arrive at the grave in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming 'WOW, what a ride!!!' Besides, with you around to ruin my fun, I should last another couple of years if Dracula doesn't get me first." She kicked her mount up to a sturdy oak and jumped into the branches with a final wave at Van Helsing. There was a slight rustling noise, and soon Ashian was traversing the treetops and then the roofs of the town.

Van Helsing muttered, "She's been practicing." But as he entered the gates of the town, he began to wonder what Ashian meant by, "if Dracula doesn't get me first." And the more he thought about it, the less he began to suspect it was the obvious translation.

"So I suppose that's what she meant by 'the squirrel routine?'" Carl was next to Van Helsing now, the reins of Ashian's mare in his hands.

"Yes." The way Van Helsing said it Carl understood not to press the matter. Instead he pulled his hood further toward his face and hunch forward even further. True, he and Van Helsing had rid this town of the vampires two years ago, but seeing as they had killed the wrong vampire... well; Carl didn't expect a warm reception.

Van Helsing dismounted after he began to get a large following. Then again, such was the trouble with wearing such obvious clothes. He wasn't sure where to go, so he led the crowd to Valerious Castle, assuming that it would be vacated. It wasn't. The gate had been unchained, the gardens cared for, and broken windows replaced. It was broad daylight, but up in the library tower could be seen a flickering torch. Someone was living here, and had made themselves quite at home.

Van Helsing was made aware of the fact that he had been surrounded by the villagers during his examination of the castle by a hard projectile that had been thrown (none too lightly) from the juniper tree above him. At the head of the mob was a scrawny teenager sitting on the closed gate that Van Helsing was about to enter. The boy looked to be about Van Helsing's height, but his lean build and sinewy hands suggested that he was some sort bookworm who had never worked a day in his life.

"Tell me, gentlemen, what brings you to my home?" There was a mocking note in his voice that irritated Van Helsing more than Carl's snoring ever had.

"Your home? Am I to assume that you are a Valerious?" Van Helsing peered from under his hat brim to challenge the kid.

"If you were truly the great Van Helsing, you would assume nothing." The scrawny youth swung himself off the gate in a practiced motion. "No, I am not a Valerious, and I suggest you leave the premises before you are forced away."

Van Helsing made a noise that could have been a bitter laugh. It certainly wiped the smug smile off of the boy's face. "How do you intend to force me off of land that isn't yours? I know that these good people wouldn't dare lay a finger on me."

The boy pressed his face into Van Helsing's. "First of all, this _is_ my land; I inherited it when Anna was killed. Second of all, what makes you so confident that the villagers won't harm you? Were you not the one who claimed to have killed Count Dracula only to find you had bungled the job?" This was greeted by murmurs through the crowd.

"Excuse me, young sir, but I'm afraid that Mr. Van Helsing has quite forgotten his manners. Would you be so kind as to allow us lodgings in you spacious abode? I know that you can't possibly have all those rooms filled." Ashian had swung over the lad's head and was now standing on the gateway as if it were a solid block of stone and not a wrought iron gate.

Everyone in the crowd jumped in surprise as she spoke, but the youth simply raised an eyebrow in amusement. "I'm not sure if I should allow a stranger into my household, fair lady, but if I were to gain the favor of you name, you should be readily welcome to my dwelling." Van Helsing growled to himself. This boy was a flirt beyond all reason, or he'd eat his hat.

"Why of course I'd gladly speak my name to such a pleasant welcome, but first I would wish to secure lodgings for my companions." Ashian was _really_ playing up the theatrics for the crowd.

"Ah, fair maiden, you put me at a loss, but I suppose that for the gift of company so refined I would be able to sacrifice." Just to add to the drama, he bowed low to her.

"Well, dear sir, we have a bargain. My name is Ashian Adelaide Valcon." Ashian flipped backwards off the gate and smiled temptingly as her traveling companions marched though the gate. Van Helsing found himself wishing that the smile had been for him.


	7. Is Eternity what you want?

It has been brought to my attention that in a previous chapeter I have displayed animal abuse by saying "kicked her horse in to a canter" when I should have said "nudged". Kay. Whatever. The fictional hosre was not under any fictional abuse, alright, Lizzy? tree hugger.

New chapter! Okay, the diolaoge is sappy, and so is the end, but I like it anyway. Oh, Elfperson, THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING MY WRITING!!!!! Please R & R!

Is Eternity What You Want?

The youth led everyone inside and the crowd dispersed, not a little disappointed. "My name is Thomas Eilkans. I inherited this castle when my cousin, Anna, died two years ago. As you can see I've made various repairs, but other than me and a few servants, the castle is completely devoid of life." As he navigated the winding halls he pointed to restored items, rooms, and a couple of other things no cared about. At least Ashian tried to act interested; after all, she'd never been here before. But both Carl and Van Helsing were visibly bored.

Finally, Thomas led the trio to a pair of rooms. "These two rooms are the only ones other than my own that don't have leaky roofs, broken shutters, or a vermin problem of some sort. One has a large couch that may be used as a bed, so no one will be forced into uncomfortable sleeping arrangements. I, personally, suggest that the two gentlemen lodge together so the lady may have her own room; unless the lady would wish to join me in my own quarters?" Ashian had been inspecting the larger of the two rooms when Thomas made his final suggestion. Her head turned so fast that Carl swore he heard a snap of some sort.

"EXCUSE ME?!" Van Helsing and Ashian shouted in unison. Van Helsing just left it at that, but Ashian continued (like he knew she was wont to do). "Listen, kiddo, despite all the theatrics it took to get us in here, the only thing you and I are going to share is the same hundred yard breathing radius, alright?"

Thomas looked exceptionally mischievously at Ashian. "All right, if you're sure you want nothing between us. It was just a suggestion."

Ashian's nostrils began to flare (even though it hurt incredibly because of the fact her nose had been broken); a sign Van Helsing knew from experience meant that despite everything you might have thought previously, you'd want nothing more than to take back whatever you just said. "You know what, shorty? I do want something between us."

Thomas's eyebrows shot up. "Oh? What do you want between us?"

"A whole damn planet." Ashian picked up the bag she had dropped and whirled around. Before anyone could say anything else she slammed the door to the room she had claimed for herself.

Carl recovered quicker than Thomas did and scurried off to the tower, leaving Van Helsing with their host. Van Helsing finally stopped staring at the door Ashian had disappeared behind and looked over at the gangly youth. He shook his head and picked up his own bag while muttering, "Thomas, never in my life have I seen a womanizer like you crash and burn so quickly."

He threw his bag in the room that Ashian hadn't taken and followed Carl up to the tower and left Thomas to his ponderings. Eventually he went to down to the kitchens, but seeing as he's a boring know-it-all, I'd rather follow Van Helsing. So I will.

Van Helsing stalked up to the tower where Carl had already buried himself in a mountain of books. In fact, he was so engrossed that he didn't hear Van Helsing come up the stairs and jumped significantly when Van Helsing tapped him on the shoulder. When Carl finally settled down he realized it was Van Helsing who had tapped him, and it was also Van Helsing that was bent over double in laughter.

"Oh, Carl. Do you have any idea how boring the world would be without you?" Van Helsing said as he straitened up.

"If you consider being dangerously overrun with all sorts of evil boring, than yes I have an inkling."

"Dangerously overrun with all sorts of evil? Please, Carl, you've left the abbey a whole of what, twice?" Van Helsing had picked up an old tome and began flipping through it. It was, ironically, about werewolves, so Van Helsing put it down.

"No, not twice! It has actually been four times." Carl snatched the ancient book from Van Helsing's hands.

"Four times? How do you figure?" Van Helsing crossed his arms, finally interested in what Carl was going to say.

"Well, I'm out of the abbey right now, I came with you last time you were here, and then there's that time I went with you to London." ((Van Helsing: The London Assignment)) Carl was looking about as smug as the poor friar could get.

"Carl," There was a tone of amusement in Van Helsing's voice.

"Yes, Van Helsing?"

"That was three times. You said four. You are either telling me there's something I haven't heard or that you can engineer crossbows to fire fifty bolts a minute, but you can't count past three." Van Helsing was following Carl around the room with inquisitive eyes. Carl's only response was to grin impishly and grunt in satisfaction that he had finally found something Van Helsing hadn't tried to pry into. He and Ashian were more alike than they realized.

Speaking of Ashian, she finally walked into the room, but it was obvious that she had been listening to the whole conversation. Twenty-one years ago she would have barged strait in, and Van Helsing had taken extreme pains to teach her otherwise. "Carl, despite my insatiable curiosity, I'm going to avoid the dangerous topic and ask you about London. When did you and Van Helsing go to London?"

Ashian settled down a blue couch (bet you can recognize it from the movie) and listened while Carl told the story of when he and Van Helsing had gone to London to track down Mr. Hyde. Carl soon became very animated, playing up his role significantly only to be shot down by Van Helsing's raised eyebrows and curt head shakes to disprove Carl's exaggeration. By the time Carl had finished Ashian was howling in mirth.

"You _kissed_ Queen Victoria?! But she's seventy years old!" Oh, this was _very _amusing.

"Well, she wasn't seventy years old when the kiss began, and really the whole affair was her doing." Van Helsing was exceptionally uncomfortable with this line of conversation. He and Ashian had both done some pretty embarrassing things in front of each other, and he only had to say a couple of words to remind her that he had enough leverage over her to shut her up. He decided to do so after five solid minutes of laughter. "Ashian, need I remind you of Robert Fanny?" The words had the desired effects, leaving Ashian white and rigid.

"Robert Fanny? What kind of person has a last name like 'Fanny'?" Now it was Carl's turn to be curious.

Ashian got of the couch, gave Van Helsing a particularly icy glare, and stalked out of the library muttering, "It was a pet name." This got Carl's attention and he ran out behind her shouting questions.

Van Helsing gave the pair a head started and began to follow them when he heard footsteps around the corner. He knew it wasn't Ashian because she wasn't near so clumsy and it wasn't Carl because he had a tendency to shuffle. That left only three options: one, it was one of the household servants; two, it was Thomas; or three, it was an intruder. It turned out to be Thomas, to Van Helsing's great disappointment.

"Umm, Mr. Van Helsing, would I be able to get a word in before Miss Valcon comes back?" Normally Van Helsing would have said later with no intention of coming back, but the boy was their host and something pinched in the youth's face told Van Helsing he had better listen.

"Of course, Mr. Elkins. What's wrong?"

"Please, call me Thomas. Now, I gathered by the condition of your party that perhaps you ran into trouble shortly before entering the town, trouble that most likely came in the form of Dracula's brides." Thomas already seemed to know what happened.

"Correct. They attacked us about two miles out." Van Helsing had slowly backed into the library. Whatever Thomas had to say, he obviously didn't want Ashian to hear it. By going back into the library, Van Helsing practically told her with a big neon ((neon hasn't been discovered yet, but who really cares?)) sign that she needed to listen in.

"Did anything unusual or, umm, potentially dangerous happen to Miss Valcon?" Thomas was hoping desperately that he wouldn't get the answer that he knew would come.

Van Helsing was leaning on the tower desk and crossed his arms to say that Thomas really needed to stop rambling. "Well, let's see. Ashian was attacked by two of the three brides, nearly kidnapped, dropped twenty feet from the air to the ground, broke her nose, and was fed on. Yes, I believe that something potentially dangerous happened to her."

Ignoring the sarcastic tone in Van Helsing's voice, Thomas became visibly worried. "Oh dear. You said she was fed on?"

"I did." Van Helsing didn't get worried often, but Thomas was beginning to draw him closer to that emotion than he'd gotten in a long while. "So what?"

"How many times has that ever happened to her?" Thomas was wringing his hands in an attempt to act calm.

"Once by all the original brides, once by both the new ones, and once by Dracula himself." Ouch. Just saying that brought back painful memories.

"Six times?!" Thomas couldn't keep the surprise out of his voice.

"Yes. What's the problem?" Okay, now Van Helsing was worried.

"There's venom in the vampirc saliva that will begin to work on the victim, whether or not the vampire dies. However, the saliva can be controlled so that a victim need not become a vampire." Thomas was speaking very rapidly.

Van Helsing was now worried _and_ completely out of patience. "I know that already! What, you think the Order – What do you mean 'whether the vampire dies or not.'? The Order told me that if I killed Dracula that everything bitten or created by him would die!"

"It's that way only for Dracula. Because he is so powerful, most vampires latch onto that strength on the condition that if he dies, they will as well. For any other vampire this rule doesn't apply. So even if you do manage to kill Dracula, Ashian should survive." Thomas was wringing his hands so hard that they were white blotched with red.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Van Helsing felt like shaking the answers out of Thomas, but he'd done that to Carl once and almost sent him in to a coma.

"All the venom from being fed on in Ashian's blood has been working on her. After each feeding there's more venom, and after each feeding it's worked a little bit faster. The change has been gradual, and she probably hasn't noticed it at all, but she most likely has two or three more years - if not months – to live as a human. That is, assuming she isn't bitten again." Thomas hands were beginning to swell with all the abuse.

This news hit Van Helsing harder than a brick wall (pardon me for being cliché). "And if she does get bitten again?"

"Probably about a week, if not less." Thomas felt overwhelming pity for Van Helsing as he said. He wished he didn't have to be the one to tell him, but he had to know.

Ashian a vampire? It just couldn't be right; he'd have noticed. But, looking back, he realized the signs were all there. Her dark clothes, avoiding sunlight, hardly eating or sleeping. And the fight with the brides… he had thought that she had been practicing, but that wouldn't account for her enhanced hearing and sight, or that the only thing she had broken after her fall was her nose, or how the swelling and blood beneath her eyes had already gone down, or how agile she was when she jumped and moved about on the rooftops. How could he have been so stupid! Ashian was well on her way to vampirism and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Van Helsing lifted his head from his hands at the sound of movement. Ashian had been listening at the door and bolted into the room when Thomas was done. "How long did you say I had?" Van Helsing noticed that he voice was hardly louder than a whisper – she was scared.

"Two or three years at best. As long you aren't bitten a seventh time, there might even be a way to extract the venom." Van Helsing knew there wasn't, but part of him was hopeful anyway.

"No, what did you say after that?" Ashian had her hands up on Thomas's shoulders, serching his eyes as if the answer was there.

"If you are bitten a seventh time you'll have roughly a week to live." Ashian's eyes filled with terror at his words. She stumbled back as though Thomas had hit her.

Van Helsing stood up and turned Ashian toward him, struggling to keep his voice level. "Ashian, what's wrong?"

Ashian looked up at him a dazed look in her eyes. "Dracula bit me. He's bitten me twice. I've been bitten _seven times._" Somehow saying it told her that it was really happening. She threw Van Helsing's hands off her shoulders and ran down the hall. Van Helsing made no move to stop her, just as shocked as Thomas and Carl (who had been listening as well, but stayed near the door of the library).

After about half an hour, Van Helsing left the quiet room where Carl still sat on a chair he had sunk into not long after Ashian left. Thomas had left quietly to wherever he went; Van Helsing didn't particularly care. Instead he went down to the stables and led his own mount out into the cool night air. Ashian's mare was already gone, and finding her was just a matter of following the set of prints left behind in the wet earth. It wasn't too hard to follow her; she had made no move to cover her tracks and the night was lit well with the full moon.

After a while, Ashian's trail led into the forest and along a small deer trail. Van Helsing had to dismount after a while, and soon came upon where Ashian had tied her own horse and then continued on foot. He followed suit, tying his mount next to hers, using a quick-release knot the two used when ever they had snuck out of school. Moving slowly, Van Helsing followed her path of snapped twigs and scattered leaves to a clearing on a hill. Van Helsing considered chewing her out for being so careless in the woods, but one look at her drove out all thoughts of being coarse with her.

Ashian had evidently heard him climb up the hill, but paid him no heed. She just continued to stare up at the clouded night sky, knees bent, arms crossed over them, and her head resting mournfully on the whole arrangement. Instead of breaking the silence, Van Helsing sat next to her, his coat fanning out behind him. Heaven knows how long they sat there, one contemplating the easiest way to fall on the stake, the other hoping she wouldn't ask him to do it for her.

"What are you looking at?" It was Van Helsing who spoke first. He was leaning back on his hands, watching Ashian's silhouette.

"A blank, dismal, night sky. Not unlike my future." Ashian voice was completely devoid emotion.

"Ashian, as odd as it is coming from me, are you sure you're not being overly dismal? After all, you don't work for the Order, and even if you did, I don't think they'd…" Van Helsing trailed off, not sure if he should say it or not.

"Don't think they'd have you kill me?" Ashian's voice had gone from flat to icy. Well, at least it was a start. "Van Helsing, what am I going to do? For the past twenty years life has just been kill or be killed. I never once stopped to question if I was killing evil demons or misunderstood beings. Now, I'm going to be that which I have hunted so passionately." Van Helsing grinned a little. For a moment she had sounded like the Frankenstein monster when he had discovered that Van Helsing had been bitten.

"Alright, now you're just being dramatic. I've been in your shoes before, I know what you're going through, remember?" Van Helsing sat up and began to play with his hat.

"But there's a cure for being a werewolf. There is no possible way for me to stop being a vampire." Ashian finally stopped examining the skies and looked to Van Helsing.

"True, but in all technicality, being a werewolf is considered a disease. Vampirism isn't." Van Helsing playfully put his hat on Ashian's head, just like he had done to Anna two years ago. "You have the strongest will I've ever encountered, non-humans included. You'll be just fine."

Ashian grinned at this uncharacteristic show of optimism. She liked this lighter side of Van Helsing, dirty hat and all. "Wow, I must have sunk pretty low if I needed _you_ to point out the sliver lining."

Van Helsing returned her smile. "Yes, you did. Don't do it again."

Ashian's grin was pained, and didn't reach her eyes. She was just acting for Van Helsing's sake. "You really think it will turn out all right?"

Van Helsing looked Ashian up and down before answering. "Yes, I really do. I don't know why or how, but I think you'll be just fine."

Just as he said it, the clouds began to clear up, and within fifteen minutes, the beautiful night sky was showing through. "Thank you, Van Helsing. For everything."

"Not a problem." Van Helsing laid down to get to get a better view of the stars. On an impulse, he reached out for Ashian's arm and pulled her alongside him. At first she was reluctant, but soon nestled in to his warm side, her head on his outstretched arm, listening to his heartbeat. Before long, Van Helsing's breathing became slow and steady, his eye's closed, and his head leaned against Ashian's. She lay there thinking about her new life, and decided it wouldn't be so bad as long as Van Helsing was there to chase the clouds away.


	8. Changes

You know what? I'm miffed. Yes, miffed. All teh archery tournements I can enter are on Sundays. Screw them! Oh well, Ski season has started, so I'll be gone most weekends anyway. By the way, REVIEWS! Please, i beg you. Becca, i comand you to join for the sole perpose of reveiwing me. Untill you do I will continue to say things about you online. Like, you laugh alot, which isn't a bad thing, but now everyone will know you as 'Becca the Giggler'

****

**_Changes_**

Van Helsing awoke with a feeling that something wasn't right. In fact, the feeling was so sharp that at first he thought it had made his arm go numb. No, his arm was numb because Ashian had fallen asleep on it and then gotten up suddenly. He picked up his hat that Ashian had rested on his chest and gasped in surprise as he massaged the life back into his arm.

"Hush." Van Helsing looked up at Ashian's silhouette, and noticed with a twinge of dismay that both her pistols were in her hands, ready to fire at anything that would have been brainless enough to move. She had her head cocked to one side, as if listening to something. Van Helsing heard nothing, and that enough put him on edge. But Ashian didn't look like she was listening to the _absence _of noise, but rather to something only she could hear. Abruptly, Van Helsing remembered that Ashian was a vampire, or would be soon.

Getting up, he walked slowly down the hill where Ashian stood vigilant. "What do you hear?"

Ashian's head was cocked to one side as her eyes darted around the clearing. "Something big. I suggest you be careful." Van Helsing would have been slightly annoyed at the useless information, but he finally heard a little of what Ashian was so diligently listening to. She was right, though.

Something big was circling the hill top just out of sight. Van Helsing motioned to Ashian, indicating with a small flick of his wrist that he would draw the creature's attention to the north side of the clearing, giving Ashian the opportunity to enter on the east or west sides and sneak behind the assailant. You might doubt that Van Helsing could have communicated all this with a flick of his wrist, but it was a predetermined signal the two had during their previous years of monster hunting.

Ashian was a little surprised that he still remembered their old hands signals, but immediately nodded and slipped away. She moved like a ghost, but as soon as the thought crossed Van Helsing's mind, he quickly tried to block out what he knew would come. Nope, not fast enough. She didn't move like as ghost, she moved like a vampire.

Van Helsing ordered himself off that path of thoughts and walked noisily over to the north side of the rise. He grinned in grim satisfaction as the rustlings followed him. He stood back from the line of trees about twenty yards and bent down as if examining something. He waited patiently for the stalker to jump out at a moment's notice, but need not have. The instant his hand landed on the ground a large beast burst from the underbrush. Van Helsing swung a pistol up in one hand and a silver stake in the other, missing with both.

The creature's momentum slammed him hard into the hill top, both weapons dropped. His assailant crouched over him, removing all possible escape. Dizzy from the impact, Van Helsing shook his head, and when his vision cleared he saw a great brown werewolf gazing back at him. Its mouth was open slightly, not barring its teeth. What little human intelligence survived the curse of the werewolf was smirking at him as if to say he was no threat. Van Helsing's hands shot to his coat where he could pull out a cross or stake, or even a bottle of holy water, but in a movement even faster than Van Helsing's the werewolf pinned both his arms. Where was Ashian?

Just as the thought crossed his mind, the werewolf bent its head towards Van Helsing's chest. It was going to eat him alive. Van Helsing writhed as much as possible in a feeble attempt to get away, but not only did the monster have his arms pinned, but was sitting on his waist, rendering everything beyond his belt immobile and useless. The beast was certainly enjoying the drama of the moment, because it took extra time to lower its head.

Parallel in time to the moment that Van Helsing felt the first gasps of pain that was the bite beginning, the creature's mouth slipped, tearing flesh away from his body, but not actually doing fatal damage. The creature howled in agony and turned around. The poor beast was too late. Ashian had snuck up behind it while it tormented Van Helsing. She had leapt forward at Van Helsing's first gasp of pain and slammed both Van Helsing's and her own silver stakes hilt deep into the heart of the monster. As the beast continued to thrash about in pain Ashian emptied several rounds of silver bullets into the beast. As a last dying attempt to do its master's bidding it threw itself on Ashian. In the heat and anger of the moment an inhuman strength gripped her, allowing her to swing the dead animal into the forest even as the body began to change back to its human form.

Van Helsing had propped himself into a sitting position and watched the whole spectacle. He could have sworn that Ashian's eyes had glowed blood red when she threw the werewolf into the forest. It was obviously a display of vampirc strength, but he had never seen another vampire's eyes ever actually glow. What new omen was this? Before he could further his ponderings, he felt spasms shake his body. It was a full moon, and he was a werewolf –again.

He need not have worried, because as soon as Ashian had discarded of the body she rushed up the dale to inspect Van Helsing. Upon seeing his wound she quickly grabbed a syringe out of a coat pocket. It was the poison antidote that she had been taught the making of in Istanbul. In the fray the tip of the needle had been broken, but Ashian just cut a small slit on Van Helsing's arm. (He had quickly discarded his coat as the spasms began.) She gently guided what was left of the snapped needle into the cut and let the antidote into his blood. The spasms quickly stopped, to the relief of both.

"That was, um, exciting." Ashian sighed in the tension. "No, it was stupid. I should have known that Dracula was after me again. I shouldn't have even left the castle. What if there had been two of them, and you didn't get the antidote in time? What if you had been killed? What if -?"

Van Helsing put a hand over her mouth to stop the rambling. He didn't enjoy being talked about like he was helpless. "Ashian, shut up. You were upset and had every right to leave, there weren't two werewolves, I did get the antidote in time, and I have yet to be killed. We need to get to the castle and decide which course of action to take, alright? Let's go." He got up first and helped Ashian to her feet.

In the quick battle the moment of tenderness had been completely forgotten, but as his ungloved hand touched her own, a violent shudder shook her body. Unrecognized passions coursed through her slow moving blood like a wolf among the guard dogs. It was akin to that which she had felt briefly before, but wilder, superior, and it ran about causing havoc while it could not be stopped. Frightened by the total lack of emotional control, Ashian dropped his hand and sprinted to where she had tied up her mount. Not pausing to wait for Van Helsing, she sent her horse into a wild gallop and sped for the Valerious Castle, completely unaware that Van Helsing stood forlornly on the hill, wondering, not a little hurt, at what could have sent her bolting at his touch.


	9. Thoughts, though random and Obscure

YAY! Becca has become Becca the Giggler! I am now happy! Alright, first off, BTG, teh las t chapter was kind of short, but it was also pretty forced. I didn't really know how to stick it in there, but I couldn't led into teh next chapter w/o Ashain getting really freaked out, and werewoves won't do that for her/me/whatever. And i'd also like to thank RandomBattlecry for leting me make refrence to her story. READ IT! And please contiue my reviews!

_**Thoughts, though random and obscure**_

Carl was startled out of his studies that he had just resumed when Ashian banged unceremoniously into the tower library. She was soaked from head to toe by the sudden onslaught of rain that had begun as soon as she abandoned Van Helsing on the forlorn hilltop. Completely disregarding Carl, she dived strait at the blue couch and twisted in midair ((much like I do when I get ready to read a good book)) to land on her back staring at the ceiling. Her entire visage quaked with pained sounds and Carl noticed that her right hand was ungloved and shaking violently, whereas her left was calmly wrapped in worn black leather.

Uncertain if he should ask what was wrong, Carl stood awkwardly behind the desk as he waited for Ashian to calm down. When she had stopped her self-induced torture, he spoke. "Would I be able to inquire as to what troubles you without being yelled at and having some sort of large projectile thrown at me?"

Ashian sat up and shook her wet hair like Van Helsing did whenever he got out of the showers at the Vatican. The action had always reminded Carl of a wet dog shaking itself out. "You're too used to Van Helsing. Does he really throw things at you?"

Carl realized that she was dodging the subject, but didn't pursue it. "Only when he gets drunk. It happened a lot after Anna died, but when Cardinal Jinette told him where you were, I haven't seen him touch a bottle since."

Ashian shed her sopped coat and draped it over the fire grate to let it desiccate. Fortunately the leather of her coat kept most of her dry. "So he's still an alcoholic?"

"I suppose, if by 'still' you mean he was an alcoholic when you knew at school. But, where would he get the liquor to get inebriated at a school?" Carl looked up with genuine interest.

"He got it from the school priest. It was allegedly the 'Holy Wine' but it was strong enough to get him blathering incoherently in a matter of minutes." Ashian shook her head in her reminisces. "Oh, I remember this one time he got so drunk that I actually took him to the nurse when his hangover started. She wanted to take a look at me, thinking that all my bruises were from him, but I wouldn't let her. She'd find too many scars, ask too many questions. Of course, she asked them anyway, and Van Helsing got shipped off. I don't think I've ever forgiven him for abandoning me in that deadly place, but maybe I should."

"Is that how you two were separated? He was expelled for getting drunk?" Carl had crossed the room to Ashian and sat on the vacated couch. She was pacing before the fire.

A sad grin, almost a grimace, contorted Ashian's face. "If only it were that simple. The nurse found too many scars on his body for a drunk, and called the police. At first they thought that he was just a victim of child abuse, but too many of the scars were fresh for child abuse. They interrogated him, asked where all the scars were from. At first he wouldn't tell them, but they became desperate. They induced him to get drunk and then continued the interrogations. From what they could decipher from his babble made them think he was crazy. They took him to an insane asylum, but as soon as sobered, the doctors declared him perfectly sane. He was released, and until almost twenty years later that was the last I'd heard of him. I only know that he was released because the headmaster told me three days later, on my graduation. He probably blames me for what happened, but I don't want to ask him. That conversation would just twist too many knives that are already buried deep."

"Why would it be his fault? So far I've heard a lot of incriminating evidence against you." Carl had wanted very much for this to be a friendly, almost brother to sisterly, but he was overcome with curiosity.

"We got in a fight." There was a flat tone to Ashian's voice as she sunk down next to Carl on the couch and put her head in her hands.

Carl gently rubbed her bent back, just running his hand over the contours of her spine, in a definitely brotherly act. Carl was surprised to hear Ashian speak again. "Carl, did you cry when Anna died?"

Shocked for a moment, Carl's tone was slightly unsure. "Yes, I did."

"And did Van Helsing?" Ashian dropped her right hand so that she could look at Carl's face.

"Yes, frequently for awhile, but less and less as time grew on. He still has nightmares about it, and sometimes he claims that he'd rather kill himself than live another day sad and alone. I thought he was going to do it to, but the Cardinal told him about you in time to stop him." Carl gently brushed back Ashian's hair so that he could look into her eyes "I think that the knowledge that he was the one who trained you to put your life in danger daily sits heavily upon him, while it gives him hope to go on at the same time."

Ashian smiled, but the grin didn't reach her eyes. "Carl, have you ever fallen in love before?"

Unsure where this was going, Carl raised his brow. "You do realize that this is a very random and obscure conversation?" Ashian nodded. "Well, I suppose that you'd have to define love. A twinge of wanting when I look at a woman-"

"Like the barmaid?"

"Yes, like the barmaid. But a burning passion that devours my entire being? I have only felt it once." ((RandomBattlecry's "The Big Bang Theory." Read it!)) Somewhat relieve that she didn't further her questions, Carl sunk back into the couch and regarded Ashian in a different light. Van Helsing obviously had feelings for her, but did she return such a fierce infatuation? Perhaps that had been what scared her, this knowledge of Van Helsing's passionate feelings. "Why do you ask? Have you ever lost yourself to the wild emotions?"

A shocked look spread over Ashian's face. How could Carl, who had hardly known her for more than a week, put such a precise pinpoint on what had shaken her? She rationalized that because of the vampirc venom that coursed through her veins that she had sensed Van Helsing's emotions on contact. She told herself not to be ridiculous, both Van Helsing and herself had sworn to be friends only. That was the day she had stopped calling him Gabriel. Perhaps it wasn't what he wanted at all, and the bitterness was what had caused him to slip up and invoke the argument that had separated them. If she hadn't been a stupid, scared little girl maybe he would still remember who he was, maybe Dracula would be dead, maybe Anna Valerious would be alive, and maybe she wouldn't be about to become a vampire.

"ASHIAN! WHERE ARE YOU?" She was broken out of her brooding by Van Helsing's bellow. He rushed into the library, soaked from the rain and blood running down his side for the bite, thoroughly in the grip of the deadly calm that took him when ever there was a battle about. He had spoken to her like that once, and it had been the start of the conversation that initially sent him away.

"Van Helsing, what's wrong?" Carl asked the question that she could not; somehow her musings had stolen her tongue.

"Dracula and his brides are coming. They're going to attack the village." Van Helsing glanced at Ashian with inquisitive eyes, but now was neither the time nor the place.

Without a second thought Ashian swung her semi-dry coat over her shoulders and grabbed her discarded crossbow. Tonight she would make sure that Dracula regretted the day he condemned her to a fate of Living Hell.


	10. So we meet again

Hey! I'm back! Alright, as I have already demonstrated, I'm not good with action, so sorry if its not all that good. I seemed to have hit a rut, because despite this chapter's importance, it stinks as did my new X-men chapter. I'm thinking of discontinuing it. Oh well, have at it.

And BTW: Melztli is really Savtri or whatever who is really Lizzy. Please pay her review no mind.

**_So we meet again_**

Van Helsing wasn't sure where to look to best satisfy his worrying. His head rotated almost nonstop looking from the east where a pink line rose to meet the world and then back to the west where Ashian stood silhouetted on the roof of the village church. As soon as they had sent all of the townsfolk into hiding she had climbed graceful and spider-like up the side of the building. He noticed in dismay that she avoided the side of the roof with the cross on it. The vampirc venom was taking her faster than Thomas had predicted, proving once again that no amount of reading will give you the experience needed.

Van Helsing was brought back into reality back by Ashian laughing. It wasn't her natural laugh; it was forced, cruel, almost evil. It unnerved Van Helsing more than anything he'd ever seen. Well, there was that one time he'd caught the school priest and Haung together… "They'll regret they day they died, I can assure you that." The cold words broke Van Helsing's reveille, unsure if he should answer or even if the words were directed at him.

The vampires, now only three including Dracula, were well within his range now. He quickly doused the tip of his crossbow with Holy water and sent a volley of arrows flying over Ashian's shoulders. She stood unflinching as her hair ruffled in the breeze created by the bolts, and made only a slight grimace in response to the vampires avoiding the rain of death.

She still stood undaunted, despite Van Helsing's frantic shouts at her to leave her post, as the hellbeast and his brides landed on the opposite side of the church at her. Despite the many times she had witnessed the transformation, it still sent a wave of nausea through her, this time renewed by the knowledge that soon she would be doing the same disgusting upheaval of all the rules God had set. God. Who was he to make the rules? Who was he at all? Nothing, she reminded herself. He was nothing to her now that what little trust she had placed in God had left hand in hand with her humanity. But her humanity still lingered, still stayed to wish her well on this quest she would take without it. Clinging to an estranged hope that God would still answer her prayers she sent a small plea to whoever would listen. Please, she begged, let her death be worth something.

"I must say it is wonderful to see you in such good – or should I say bad? - health, my dear. I certainly thought that your body would put up a greater resistance to the poison. Oh well, perhaps it is not as strong as your will." Dracula's attention was on her and her alone. Sonwaja, not one to lie idle during conversation, dove off and began to harass Van Helsing.

Ashian responded only by leaping forward and lodging a silver stake into his chest and pinning him to the roof top with several cross shaped daggers. She took the few seconds the maneuver bought her and whipped out the dagger that had been announced to extend to three feet in length. True to the advertisement it extended with a satisfying swish.

Just as Ashian was about to relieve Dracula's body of its head Verona dove at Ashian. Fortunately Ashian's increased reflexes told her what was coming, so she flipped backwards and grabbed her crossbow. Unfortunately, as soon as she righted herself to fire, Verona launched both of them off the church top and crashing thru the cross that all had been avoiding. The impact of the cross caused Verona to backpedal (or whatever it is in the air) giving Ashian time and room to release several bolts into Verona's chest.

Meanwhile (just 'cause I want to leave you hanging) Van Helsing had his work cut out for him the instant Sonwaja leapt from the rooftop. Carl had been tossing him various armaments, such as holy water and silver stakes, but every time Van Helsing reached out to grab whatever Carl had thrown Sonwaja twisted herself and spread her wings to block the shot. She was bleeding from puncture wounds the silver stakes, but despite Carl's incredible aim when throwing at Van Helsing, he seemed unable to pierce Sonwaja's heart.

Van Helsing had run out of bolts quite awhile ago, and was attempting to ward off the approaching vampire with his pistols, which weren't loaded with silver bullets, when Ashian and Verona came crashing off the roof. He noted as Ashian shot Verona in midair that the vampirc venom was working so fast that though the maneuver took all of ten seconds to complete, she was still fully aware of her surroundings. She began to twist her body into a vertical position, but there wasn't enough time. Her body hit the edge of the town well with a sickening crack that suggested that her spine had been hit hardest. She slid limply down the hole, the knives in the heels of her boots sliding out.

Van Helsing had hoped that because only a vampire could have survived a blow like that Verona would swoop away and leave Ashian's body un-ravaged. But instead Verona continued her dive, plunging into the well just as the first light of dawn touched to sky. Van Helsing began to run towards the well, but Sonwaja grabbed him, using his body to crash through the bolted doors of the church. She landed on top of him in a very compromising position.

She smiled and shifted into her human (or at least human looking) form, letting her fangs extend. "Don't worry about your precious Ashian; my master will give her what you never could. She will be happy even after you are dead!" There was extra emphasis on "dead."

Van Helsing's voice was calm and cool as he replied, "You disgust me."

This only widened Sonwaja's grin. "That is alright; I disgust myself. Like when I think about what that little witch sees in you; that is an incredibly disgusting."

Van Helsing had had enough. He grabbed the small crucifix he kept on a chain around his neck and swung it at Sonwaja. She leapt away from the charm, giving Van Helsing a clear shot to the door. Not waiting for Sonwaja to blockade it, he sprinted to the town square.

Clouds had covered the new sun, making it safe for the vampires again. Dracula was taking advantage of the cloud cover and watching whatever was happening in the well with his arms spread out to lean on. When Van Helsing came into the plaza he looked up and gave his old enemy a fiendish grin. Van Helsing debated weather to attack Dracula, hold his ground, or look down the well too.

Before he could decide Verona came rocketing out of the well, causing both Dracula and Van Helsing to take several steps backward. There were two puncture marks on her stomach, several bloody streaks on her face, and a long gash on her back. Moments after she had cleared the well stakes attached to ropes flew through her left wing, her stomach, and finally, her heart. The corpse's momentum carried Ashian (who had been the one on the other end of the ropes) several feet past the rim of the well, but before she could touch down again Dracula shifted into the hellbeast and swept her away.

Carl had predicted something like that would happen, and had saddled Van Helsing's horse while he had been in the church. With a hearty slap to the stallion's flank, he sent the beast to Van Helsing, who swung onto the mount without causing it to stop.

I don't know how long they went like that, Dracula carrying an unconscious Ashian and Van Helsing chasing the pair, but despite how many hours the sun always stayed behind several storm clouds. Eventually Dracula brought Ashian to a bluff that overlooked the river. Actually, it was more of an island, with an almost-jumpable-but-not-quite gap separating the mainland and where Dracula had marooned Ashian.

Ashian regained consciousness sometime during the flight, but had found it wise not to struggle, seeing as they were a good hundred feet off the ground. True, at this stage in her vampirism she might survive, but arguing with Dracula a hundred feet off the ground didn't seem like a very good idea. When she was set gently (surprisingly enough) back on land she began to speak, but Dracula cut her off.

"Lovely view, don't you think?" Ashian noticed that he wasn't even looking at the dark river below them. "Since you seemed to have developed a taste for heights I thought you would like it."

Ashian burst, "I wouldn't have 'developed a taste for heights' if you'd leave me the hell alone! What do you want from me?!"

Dracula grinned at her, like he would grin if a child had asked a question. "My dear, isn't it obvious? I want you to be a vampire. What other reason do I need?"

Tears welled in Ashian's eyes, despite her attempts at self control. "But why me? Why am I special?"

She might have gotten an answer, but at that exact moment Van Helsing had managed to jump the almost-jumpable-but-not-quite gap and shoved yet another silver stake between Dracula's shoulder blades. He shifted into the hellbeast, in the process dislodging Van Helsing and sending him plunging into the dark river that swirled below them.

Without thinking Ashian dove after him, and because she hadn't thought, plummeted downward with him. It was a deep canyon, but not deep enough for either of them to say anything, but Van Helsing did manage to give Ashian a look that conveyed that despite the fact he was pleased she had dove after him, she had still been incredibly moronic.

Then it was there. The river enveloped both of them, pushing them downward. Ashian opened her eyes and began to swim upward. She wondered how long her breath would last when it dawned on her that she didn't need to breathe anymore, and consequently she didn't feel lightheaded. Van Helsing, however, was not so lucky. He had already made it halfway to the surface when he began to sink again.

Once again not thinking about what cost her actions would have, Ashian swam toward Van Helsing and began to drag him upward while forcing her own breath into his lungs. Wondering why every time they kissed it was under dangerous circumstances, she floated downriver on her back, holding him.

Soon she banked up against the shore, and dragged the semiconscious Van Helsing out of the water. Fortunately she didn't have to perform mouth to mouth because as soon as she had landed a heavy blow to his thigh he sat up, coughing and looking thoroughly disoriented.

"It amazes me that you managed to stay alive this long, rushing into things like that." Ashian poured water out of her boot as she spoke.

"Me?! What about you! At least I don't go diving off cliffs on a whim!" Van Helsing began rubbing his bruised thigh.

"Well, I wouldn't have jumped if you hadn't been stupid!" Not waiting for a reply, she began to walk off into general direction of the Valerious castle. Van Helsing shook his head and walked off after her, all attempts at speech frozen in his throat by Ashian's glowering.


	11. An Argument and several realizations

Alrighty, bring in the sappy dialouge! Don't know if this chapie is so spiff, but I'd like to dedicate all of Carl's pillow-beating to RandomBattle cry, cuz she's really the one who gave me the idea. Oh, i want to apolize for Dracula's absence in this chapter, but it just got too long. He'll be back, i promise

_**An Argument and several realizations**_

Carl hadn't thought he had fallen asleep, but over the past forty-eight hours the only sleep he had gotten had lasted a whole of fifteen minutes. He awakened with a snort and bumped his head against something hard. Apparently he had fallen asleep under the desk.

Thomas wandered into the library, an excited and scared look on his face. It immediately turned into a mask of guilty mirth when he saw Carl crawling out from underneath the desk. Before he could utter whatever biting comment he had in store for the poor friar, Ashian stormed into the tower, shortly followed by Van Helsing. The two of them went to separate corners of the room, obviously having just disengaged from an argument.

"Umm, I suppose Dracula gave you a rough time?" This came from Thomas; Carl wasn't stupid enough not to recognize an angry monster hunter when he saw one, and there were two angry monster hunters in the area. For all his intelligence, Thomas was perhaps the most naive and witless person on the face of the earth.

"Dracula was a walk in the park compared to a certain abomination I could speak of!" Ashian shouted for extra measure, even though Van Helsing could have heard her just fine. Her clothes were dried, but hung raggedly, her hair had come completely out of its tie, and she had dark circles under her eyes. The whole effect made her look like something a vampire had bitten and left to die. Oh wait, that had already happened to her, _seven times._

"Oh, burn in hell." Van Helsing took another swing out of a bottle of liquor he had grabbed from the bar on his way in.

"Oh my, Van Helsing, twenty years has done _so_ much for your intelligence. Not only have you managed to bungle the one chance at information that I had, you have also come up with a witty and cutting retaliation as well as kept in mind the whole reason we were separated in the first place!" Turning on her heal, she turned on Carl. "I'm going to Dracula's lair. When he sobers up tell him I threw myself off a cliff just for the irony!"

Before Carl could say anything she swept out of the room, closely followed by Thomas, who gave her the entire history of the ice-portal-mirror that was in the weapons hall. He also proceeded to tell her why she use it instead of a horse, but she had already figured that our by the time he was done explaining why it had been set up in the first place.

Great, Carl was stuck in Valerious tower with a drunken Van Helsing. And not only was he inebriated, he was livid. Carl said a quick prayer, asking for protection and a reminder why he had ever decided to become a friar, and then approached the intoxicated brute.

"You, Van Helsing, are quite possibly the _most stupid, brainless, self-centered bastard_ it had ever been my misfortune to meet!" Carl swiped the alcohol bottle out of Van Helsing's hand and hit him upside the head with it. He tossed the two thirds full bottle onto the fire and began to beat Van Helsing with a pillow.

Van Helsing grabbed the offending pillow out of Carl's hands and attempted to gag him with it. However, Carl's mouth might be big, but not only would the pillow not fit, Van Helsing was too drunk to get his aim right. When he finally established that the pillow would not fit in Carl's mouth, he grudgingly stalked down to where he and Carl were supposedly using as sleeping quarters, but actual sleeping had yet to be done.

* * *

Ashian stood in front of the mirror that in theory led to Dracula's castle while Thomas prattled on. With an exasperated sigh, she turned to face him, inadvertently showing her anger with extended fangs and glowing red eyes. Thomas shut up immediately, but Ashian didn't know why, because her reflection was just a mist on the mirror. If her heart had still been beating, she was sure it would have burst, but as that was no longer a problem she needed to worry about, she could find no way to dissuade herself that she would be in no danger - lethal, at least – at Hunedora Castle. ((F.Y.I. Dracula was a real person and even though Hunedora isn't in the middle of an icy sea, I'll use the name anyway)) 

She reached a tentative hand forward, and smiled in satisfaction and surprise when it slid through. Before she could loose her nerve she stepped through with one last warning glance to Thomas.

I hope by now I have established that despite his immense amount of book learning, Thomas Elkins has a one digit I.Q. when it comes to human interaction and the body language thereof. That being said, Thomas stepped through the mirror right after Ashian. And not only was he stupid enough to follow, he was also enough of a lack-wit to announce their presence to the entire castle by shouting at Ashian.

"Wait up! Have you no sense? No plan as to how to kill Dracula? You must be very distressed, but worry not, I will help you." Ashian stopped dead in her tracks, yet another sign Thomas failed to interpret.

"Thomas," Ashian whispered through clenched teeth. "Turn around before you come to serious harm."

Thomas mistook (once again) her anger for concern. "Oh, you need not worry about me. I can take care of myself. It is you, my dear, who has my concerns."

Ashian lost it. She dove toward Thomas, her skin turning an icy blue, wings sprouting up from her body, fangs extended and eyes glowing red. Thomas fell backward in fear, but it did nothing to save him. Ashian fell upon him and broke his neck with an awful cracking sound. Her fingernails raked his body, leaving awful trenches in his skin.

She was about to fall on his neck, in fact her jaw had begun to unhook, when she found herself again. Her skin reverted to its natural color, her teeth shrank, wings folded and her eyes became their normal hazel. She looked upon Thomas Elkins' dead body, glassy eyes and deep gashes marring his pale figure. Blood still flowed from the wounds, dying the pale snow crimson, as if to mark the place forever.

"Dear lord, what have I done?" Ashian stumbled backward, tripping on a decayed corpse. She lie in a crumpled heap, sobbing uncontrollably, and remembered her first innocent death.

* * *

Ashian, a girl of sixteen years, stared down at the body. She had been a nun, a holy daughter of god, that had been stolen away by a gargoyle and taken to its nest. Ashian and Van Helsing had attacked the nest, killing everything in it, including the captive nun. She hardly looked human with her skin shrunken in and her hair torn in uneven patches, but she had been human nonetheless. And it had been Ashian who delivered the killing blow.

A warm hand wiped the tears from Ashian's face. She turned to see Van Helsing behind her, pity and pain shining in his eyes. Hurting for her, he wordlessly drew her in and wrapped her in his arms.

"Oh Gabriel, what have I done?" Ashian sunk gratefully into Van Helsing's arms.

He took a deep breath before answering. "I am sorry for you, but if you continue this line of work, many innocents will get killed on your behalf. Just think of those that you have saved instead." He gently caressed her hair as he spoke.

"I can't do this, Gabriel. Not alone." Tears broke her speech patterns.

Van Helsing didn't know how to respond, but he wanted to comfort her even so. So he spoke, even when he knew he shouldn't. "Ashian, I promise that as long as there is breath in my body that you will _never _be truly alone. I promise." Instinctively he drew her chin upward and kissed her. At first she fell willingly into the spell of romance, but pushed him away sooner than he would have liked.

* * *

"You promised! You promised I'd never be alone! I AM alone! You promised! You promised!" Ashian sobbed, her shouts growing quieter. With one last gasp of "You promised me," she slipped back into the memory.

* * *

"Gabriel…" Ashian trailed off, unsure of how to voice her feelings.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have." Van Helsing added, "But I wanted to."

"Gabriel, are you out of your mind?" Ashian punched him square in the jaw.

"What was that for? A gentleman kisses you and you punch him? No wonder Jack didn't want to dance with you!" Van Helsing rubbed his jaw in an attempt to suppress a grin.

"First off, you are no gentleman. Second …Gabriel, this would be too incredibly complicated. I… I can't." Ashian's fist curled and uncurled, debating whether to punch him or kiss him.

"Ashian, WATCH IT!" A gargoyle came diving from the treetops at Ashian's back. Van Helsing shoved her away and fired several rounds at the beast, killing it almost instantly. The body fell on the still firing gun, causing it to fire down where Ashian had been sprawled. It clipped her back, leaving several streaks of blood in the curve of her body.

"Van Helsing, you are a bastard." Ashian gasped while she attempted to staunch the bleeding.

"I'm sorry. Here let me help." Van Helsing had never had the healing hand, and his attempts only made the wounds hurt more.

"Ouch." Ashian bit back the pain and shoved him roughly back. "Van Helsing, what's wrong with you? You're being nice, and it scares me." There was a pause, and then Ashian spoke again, the words coming unbidden. "I'm not ready. Please, can't we be friends?"

Van Helsing's younger voice was husky with emotion. "Just friends?"

Ashian gently stroked Van Helsing's cheek, kissed him lightly, and said, "Yes, _just _friends."

That night Van Helsing got drunk; really drunk. Ashian turned him over to the nurse, and that's when the real problems began.

Ashian's sobs began anew, but stopped abruptly when a cold hand stroked her hair. She looked up and found Sonwaja smiling cruelly at her.

"Welcome, my dear. My master said you would come, and lo and behold, I find you at our doorstep. Could I invite you inside, perhaps get you a drink?" Sonwaja's mouth quirked at her joke, but it only made Ashian grimace.

"Dracula knew I would come?" Ashian let the frightened note shine in her voice. There is no lying to a vampire.

"Yes, it is always the same with his experiments and pets. They think they can stand firm, but he has yet to find one who can resist his will. He hopes that you will be different, but I doubt it. So far you have shown little improvement over the others." Sonwaja led Ashian into the castle and up a flight of stairs while she spoke. Her topic drifted to more grisly things that I have elected not to record.

Ashian listened to only some of what Sonwaja said. She felt like a little child, and if Sonwaja had not kept her icy grip on Ashian's hand she surely would have gotten lost. Eventually they came to a majestic and gruesome library with beautiful tapestries on the walls, marvelous weapons of old in cases, tomes older than Dracula on mahogany tables, and everything, and I mean _everything_, decorated with human bones. There was a soft sofa sitting in front of a roaring fireplace, and indeed it was this particular nook that Sonwaja led Ashian to. But the fire held no warmth for Ashian's frozen skin, nor happiness that comes from the glow of a fire, but rather chilled her further and set her in a mood of deeper despair.

"Why do you bring me here?" Of all the questions Ashian had wanted to ask of the bride, it was the only one that came to mind.

"It is personally my favorite room in Hunedora Castle; I thought that you would enjoy it. If you'd rather the old laboratory or the tower you are welcome to them. Of course there is also the dungeon, the torture room, my master's personal chambers, and the tower, only to name a few." Sonwaja poured herself a glass of something beyond Ashian's view. When she came back, Ashian was disgusted.

"Is that blood?" She watched in horror as Sonwaja sipped it like a fine lady would sip a select after-dinner wine.

"Why yes, would you like some?" Ashian shook her head in a morbid fascination. "Oh, but you must try it eventually, your existence depends on it." Sonwaja let the subject drop and waved to the library as if to tell Ashian to look around. Because she didn't want to make small talk with the bride, she swallowed her disgust and looked at several of the slightly less disturbed tomes.

* * *

"Van Helsing, you brute, wake up!" Carl beat Van Helsing over the head with another throw pillow. Van Helsing was currently in the throes of a hangover, and merely rolled over on the bed he had collapsed on. This not only encouraged Carl to continue the beating, he climbed onto the bed and began to kick Van Helsing out. The monster hunter landed with a heavy thud on the floor and groaned rather loudly. He still refused to get up, however, which convinced Carl (not that he needed much of an excuse) that dumping a pitcher of water over the sleeping man might wake him up. It did. 

Van Helsing jumped up and chased Carl back to the tower library. Both men were panting considerably, seeing as Carl's feet had been gifted with the flight of fear and Van Helsing spent quite a bit of time running to and fro.

"Carl," Said Van Helsing, panting and stopping for air every few syllables, "Do that – again – and I swear – you'll be picking your – teeth off the floor."

"Well, fine. But I wouldn't have had to do that if you hadn't gotten so miserably drunk. And you wouldn't have gotten so miserably drunk if you and Ashian hadn't gotten in a fight. And if you and Ashian hadn't gotten in a fight she wouldn't have gone to Hunedora Castle – I mean, thrown herself off a cliff for the irony." Technically Ashian had never told him _not _to tell Van Helsing where she had gone, just as long as he told the brute she had thrown herself off a cliff.

"SHE DID WHAT?!" Needless to say, Van Helsing was bellowing despite the fact that Carl was only about three feet away.

"Well, all things considered, this is your fault." Carl kept his voice calm, trying very hard not to squeak or sound smug.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" Van Helsing was still yelling, but by the time he finished his sentence he had sunk wretchedly onto the blue couch and had lowered his volume.

"The obvious thing, of course. Go and get her back, you prat." Carl came around from the desk that had been protecting him from Van Helsing and pulled a stool in front of his friend.

"I can't do that." Van Helsing's head was in his hands.

"And why not?"

"Because… just because, alright?" Van Helsing was often blunt in the way he said things, which very rarely left him at a loss for words.

"Because you're afraid Ashian will ask questions you don't have answers for? Because you're afraid that you'll see her and lose all control? Because you can't handle seeing her without wanting to hold her? And because you're afraid that if you hold her just once you won't want to let go?" They were set as questions, but Carl already knew the answers.

"Yes," Van Helsing whispered. "How could you know?"

Carl grinned. "You've said it yourself, I'm a genius. But it doesn't take a genius to read you and Ashian like the Sunday post."

Van Helsing stood and began to pick up discarded weapons. "Alright, if I'm so transparent, what am I thinking now?"

"Um, 'I'm going to kill the friar'?" Carl winced.

"No; 'I'm going to kill Dracula _and then_ the friar.'"


	12. Histories: discovered and buried

Alrihgty now, once again, I stink at narrating action adn the last bit of action is sappy. It may help if you re-read teh beginning of chapter one, you know, the dream Ashian has. Tecnically i could be done with this, but i hate cliff hanger endings. Review and tell me whatcha think.

RandomBattlecry: You are quite welcome for teh chapter dedication.  
PiPPin: thank you for finally reading my story.  
Becca the Giggler: Thanks so much for you demands that i finsih this. It's actually longer than my novel, but my novel's not done.  
Savitri: Stop flamming me, okay! Jeeze, do I need to remind you about _your _attempt at writing something? Hmm?  
Audrey: Dracula's Back!  
Jacqui12b: Well, i wrote more!  
nicnok: Once again, I updated (with you in mind. Am ionyour author alert list?)  
Kawaii Kitty9: Jeeze, it's about time you got to this chapter! (Joking)  
Lord Harven: I like Ashian too : )  
Elfperson: Thankx for following me writing  
legolas-luthien69: Thank you sooo much for my first review! Sorry I never got to review you...

**_Histories; discovered and buried_**

"Welcome, my dear, to Hunedora castle." Ashian jumped as Dracula whispered in her ear. "How may I help you?" He began stroking her neck, fingering the seven pairs of pinprick scars.

"You know why I came here." Ashian struggled against the impulse to attack Dracula.

"Yes, you want answers. But my dear, you have yet to ask questions." Dracula stepped back and poured himself a glass of the blood Sonwaja had opened earlier. She had left as soon as Dracula entered.

"Alright, here's one: Why do want me to be a vampire?" Ashian's fist clutched a cross inside her coat, but she immediately released it when it began to burn her hand.

Dracula smirked at her shocked face. "You should probably remove that waste of metal from your personage before it burns your clothes, my dear. Now, why do I want you to be a vampire? You are the final test in a very long experiment, there is no personal reason. That Van Helsing is so powerless against it is merely an added bonus."

"An experiment." Ashian muttered to herself. Perhaps it explained things, but Ashian's mind was slow from grief and pain. "What sort of experiment?"

Dracula watched her pace the room like a breeder would watch his prize charger. "An experiment to find the perfect vampire, unstoppable and feared by all." Dracula paused before beginning anew. "Tell me, my dear, do you know who your sire and dam are?"

"My parents?" Ashian was disturbed by his use of breeder's terms. "Only that my mother was a Romanian pagan priestess."

"Ah, that is more than I expected you to know. Yes, she was a pagan priestess, but not Romanian, she was a Transylvanian. Her name was Tamesis, named for the Greek river goddess. She was descended from a long line of my worshipers, known as some of the freest willed and stubborn women in the history of vampires. Your father was named Tahmores, also a descendent of my followers. He was strong, brave, cunning, and loyal. At my order, they had you. You see, for some two hundred years now, I have tried to breed a successor, but all my attempts have failed. You show the most promise, despite mingling with _Van Helsing_," Dracula spit the name like it was a curse.

Ashian slowly put two and two together. "Wait, how would you know that I've met Van Helsing before that night I killed Xiomara? You'd have to have followed me beyond the first time you bit me. That means that you were the demon in my dreams! You were the reason I couldn't sleep in the dark! You were the reason I met Van Helsing, which means you were the reason we got in an argument! You're also the reason I've been bitten seven times!" Ashian sunk into an overstuffed chair. When she spoke again her voice was coated with the frosty note that Van Helsing had learned to heed. "You are the reason my life lies in shambles around my feet."

"It is not my fault you were separated from Van Helsing. Do away with your emotion, it makes you weak. If I must, I will kill Gabriel Van Helsing for you, though I was hoping that I could let him die with the misery of knowing what you have become."

Ashian looked up at Dracula, her eyes glowing red. "You will do no such thing."

Carl stumbled through the ice portal for the second time in his life. Two times was too many. He blinked the rain out of his eyes and stumbled into Van Helsing. Did it ever stop raining around here?

"Van Helsing, what are you –" Carl stopped mid-sentence when he saw what his friend was staring at. It was a corpse, ragged and hollow, dried blood caked on its once fine clothes. "Is that…"

"Thomas Elkins." Van Helsing crossed himself.

"Was he a friend of yours?" Carl stifled a scream as Sonwaja peered over his shoulder at the cadaver.

Van Helsing whirled around at the sound of her voice. "Did you this?" He held his katanas spinning and ready to part her head from her shoulders.

"No, it was not me. I would not have wasted so much precious blood. This was your friend Ashian's doing." Sonwaja smirked, totally oblivious to the spinning blades that were digging into her skin.

"You're lying!" Van Helsing shouted. He shoved his katanas forward, but when there should have been a disturbing splash of blood and an awful squelching sound, there was a flare of lightning and Sonwaja was no longer there.

"Van Helsing! Behind you!" Carl shouted as Sonwaja dove from the hanging tree behind him. He lunged out of the way, sliding on the ice and snow toward the edge of the abyss that surrounded Dracula's castle. His gloved hand found the edge in time, only to have his actual hand slide out. As he began to fall, he felt a firm grip catch his wrist. He looked up to find Carl holding onto the cliff edge for both of their lives.

Carl was wondering how long they would hang like this when Sonwaja dove off the edge and flew completely past them. She disappeared into the shadows below and the next instant was flying toward them, a vertical blur of icy skin and flapping wings. Her claw-like hands dug into Van Helsing's back as she flew upward, carrying Van Helsing and Carl (who was hanging onto Van Helsing for dear life) upward and dropping them through the roof of the old laboratory.

Carl landed mercifully on the red couch that he had seen Anna Valerious die on, but the monster hunter was not so fortunate. He landed on a torn piece of equipment and slid limply down its ragged sides, tearing more gashes into his back. He hit the floor in a small pool of his own blood and began to crawl away from the human-looking Sonwaja. She grinned and picked him up by the neck. Small groans escaped his lips as she threw him once again against the rusted piece of apparatus, but this time she held him there.

"Now, Van Helsing, listen well, for it shall be the last thing you hear. I am many dishonorable things, but I am not a liar." Sonwaja's voice was a deadly wind in Van Helsing's ears. "My master wanted you to live so that his experiment might kill you, but for making a mockery of my honor, your precious Ashian will have to settle with weeping over your dead body." Sonwaja licked the blood that ran down Van Helsing's neck before letting her fangs extend. They never had a chance.

Carl rushed Sonwaja with a silver stake in his right hand and a cross in his left. Sonwaja heard him coming and began to fly upward, but not before Carl had successfully driven the stake clean through her stomach. She dropped Van Helsing and clawed her abdomen in pain. While she writhed in agony he stood and pulled the stake out of her belly and sent it through her heart. He stood unflinching as she deteriorated into a pile of dust.

Ashian pounced on Dracula, her body shifting seamlessly into an icy blue demon. She fell short, however, and clutched her head in pain. An unearthly shrieking filled the castle. Just as Ashian thought her eardrums would explode, it stopped abruptly. Dracula had a pained grimace on his face, his jaw clenched and nostrils flared.

"Sonwaja," Dracula whispered to himself. Then to Ashian, "Gabriel has murdered my one surviving bride. As a vampire, her finial cry has a physical pain for you. I wonder, will your pain be as tangible when I kill Van Helsing?" Dracula's features contorted and twisted till he was a vampire's true form.

"NO!" Ashian dove at the ascending hellbeast, her own wings flapping to keep him back. With her contorted feet she grabbed a scourging whip off a stand and shifted it up to her hand. Just before Dracula soared through the balcony in the library that overlooked the laboratory she cracked the whip, sending it wrapping around the hellbeast's neck. Dracula gave a strangled cry and sank to the floor. While he clawed at the strip of leather, bone, and glass around his neck, Ashian shifted into her once human form.

She attacked Dracula with everything in her coat. Her pistols until they wouldn't fire, she shoved crossed into cuts made by silver stakes and knives, roundhouse kicks with the knives in her boot extended, and several blows to his collar bone. Finally Dracula was no more than a limp husk lying on the floor. There were bloody smears along the marble floor and gashes in the walls from the vampire's failed escape attempts. Angered by the sight, Ashian shifted into her own hellbeast shape and threw what had been Dracula over the banister.

_Ashian felt her body melt back together as she stared at the bloodied balcony. _It was the same scene from the dream she had had before the Halloween party so long ago. Indeed, the library doors came rushing open and a man, bloodied, torn and bruised, came rushing in. Despairingly he surveyed the room, taking in the dismal decorations and smears of blood, old and new. Ashian waited patiently for him to find her, and when he did he almost collapsed.

"Thank God you're all right!" Van Helsing rushed forward and wrapped his arms around her as if she were a specter he didn't wish to let go. Bending closer he whispered in her ear, "I thought for sure you were dead."

Just as in the dream, Van Helsing lifted her chin and let his lips slide over hers. Blood from both their wounds mixed, just as last time they had met so passionately. But this time was different. Ashian let herself get lost in the ardor of the kiss. She didn't want to ever let go, but her eyes snapped open when her enhanced hearing picked up shuffles and murmurs from behind the balcony.

Ashian swung Van Helsing out of the library and threw herself against the door. "Ashian! Ashian, what are you doing?! Ashian!" Van Helsing shouted through the mahogany doors, but Ashian kept him from getting through as Dracula climbed over the balcony.

Dracula's eyes were flaming, his shoulders hunched in fury, his fists clasped tight, and the scourging whip held in his right hand. He cracked it at Ashian and instinctively her arm shot up to block the blow. Shards of metal, bone, and glass dug into her skin. She cried out in pain when Dracula yanked the whip, pulling her toward him. He dropped the whip and squeezed her throat.

His fangs extended and his jaw unhooked. He was going to feed on her, and this time there would be no awakening. Ashian fell limp, realizing there was no hope of escape. Memories flooded her, memories she never knew she had. Christmases at various orphanages, her set of foster parents changing each year, her first day at The Magellan Co-ed Boarding College for Young Adults, whispering with Van Helsing during classes, sneaking out each night, moonlight romps with Van Helsing, their first kiss together, meeting Gabriella, how happy she felt when Van Helsing touched her, and then the pain that shone in his eyes when he knew he couldn't help her. She realized, as her blood flowed out for what would surely be the last time, that she didn't care if she was a vampire of not, but only that Van Helsing loved her and she loved him.

Dracula dropped her and began to scream in pain. High pitched shrieks and low gargles, he clawed his throat, then his chest as if he were on fire. He shifted from hellbeast to human-looking and back again, moaning in pain and hitting against the wall. Finally he sank to the floor and let loose one last animal cry and burst into flames.

Van Helsing forced the door open and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of Ashian silhouetted against the blue and white flames. When at last the inferno died out, Ashian collapsed into Van Helsing's arms. She grinned weakly and let him carry her down the stairs and out the hall. Carl was waiting by the portal, trying to remember how they had gotten through last time.

"Gabriel," Ashian whispered. Van Helsing looked down at her, shocked to hear her call him by his first name again. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Van Helsing was frightened by how soft her voice was.

"For being a stupid, scared little girl." She nestled into Van Helsing's arms and let her eyes fall closed.

* * *

Alrighty, whatcha think? To continue or not to continue? TELL ME!


	13. One more reason I love you

FINISHED! I am now officially finished! I'm considering writing a sequel, just because they're so cool. I wrote a summary teh bottom, so let me know if i should write it or not. I'd also like to thank RandomBattlecry, MariAmber, and Becca the Giggler for asking me to continue. Savitri has yet to review, so I'm assuming that there's nothing to critize in the last chapter.

Answers to Becca's questions: Alright, Ashian _**is**_ dead. She's a **_vampire _**for pity's sake! If you mean as in never going to come back, well, I like her too much. PLus, she if dies, I can't write a sequel. Why isn't Dracula her father? I figured that i couldn't pull that off with a plausable explanation (if you'd seen teh movie, you'd know why!) besides, it just seemed too Star Wars.  
Dracula: Ashian, I am your father.  
Ashian: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  
See what I mean?

Last chapter, and plenty sappy, too. But if you think this stuff is bad, go watch the last five minutes of Wizard of Oz. This can't possiblely be that awful. (Savitri, you review and say it is I'll burnyour Pirates of teh Carribeanan DVD and then I'll get your Orli Poster.HAHAHAHAH!)

* * *

_**One more reason I love you**_

"Van Helsing, wake up." Carl poked Van Helsing with fire poker. He knew from experience it was smartest to be at least three feet away from the monster hunter when you woke him.

"Damnit, Carl! I wasn't asleep!" Van Helsing batted the fire poker away. But he had been asleep; a point Carl chose not to bring up for the sake of his own well being. Ever since the night Ashian had fought with Dracula, Van Helsing had done nothing but pace the room where she lay and sit by her bedside occasionally. It had been three days now, and other than the fact that she would scream sporadically in her sleep, there was no sign that she was alive. Or, at least as alive as a vampire could get.

"Of course. While you weren't sleeping I cabled that Madame Frescona you met in the port, as well as the Gabriella Ashian lives with." Carl used the fire poker to stir up the dying fire. His attempts were thwarted by the log collapsing.

"How did you know where to cable her?" Van Helsing ran his hand through his hair and shook the sleep from his eyes.

"Which her?" Carl tossed the fire poker aside. "That Gabriella was particularly easy to find seeing as she_ lives _Ashian. Madame Frescona actually cabled me asking if we'd managed to kill Dracula."

"Oh." Van Helsing hadn't been one for conversation the past three days.

"Anyway, like I was saying, I cabled both of them, and through some sort of ungodly talent they are both waiting outside. I told them it was best if I woke you first." Carl walked over to the door of the room and let Gabriella in as well as a young woman. It took Van Helsing several moments to realize that Madame Frescona was a shape shifter as well. Her hair was dark brown and braided down her spine. She wore a loose linen dress and a large vest that swept down to the floor. A dark mist followed her with glowing yellow eyes, and if one concentrated hard enough, you could see a vague outline of what had a head, shoulders, arms, and a long tail. A Demonic familiar, assumed Van Helsing.

"Demonic yes, familiar no. He was my fiancé at one point, but that was before Dracula decided to experiment on him." She bent over the dying fire, gave it a hearty glare and grinned when it burst into flame. She was powerful. "Yes, arts taught to me by my mother. They're quite useful, no?"

Van Helsing was startled by Gabriella throwing the curtains open. The evening sunlight struck Ashian's pale figure full in the face. Gabriella tossed the sheets back as if it were an average day in her Paris town home. "Wake up, you slug! The sun's almost set!" Ashian moaned, a painful noise that made Van Helsing flinch. He wanted to knock Gabriella across the room and snap the curtains shut, but Madame Frescona held him back with an outstretched arm.

Gabriella helped Ashian to sit, a sign she did realize they were in Valerious Castle and not Paris. Ashian shuttered several times and opened her mouth as if to moan again. But instead, as Carl put it later, she began spewing viscous substances. Really, it was a disgusting mixture of bile and blood. And it was all over Gabriella's lap.

Totally ignoring Ashian's upheaval, she wrapped her friend in a crushing bear hug. "Oh, if you didn't have me so _damn_ worried I'd slap you." Ashian moaned again, and it almost sounded like "get off me" but was somewhat more muffled by Gabriella. Eventually Madame Frescona ushered Carl and Van Helsing out of the room and pried Gabriella off Ashian. With a final tear she left Madame Frescona and Ashian to be.

It was several more hours before Madame Frescona left the room and left the door open. She and Carl departed to speak in the library, leaving Van Helsing and Gabriella to vie for the door. Van Helsing sprinted across the room and slammed the door before the shape shifter could get in.

"You seem worried." Madame Frescona had helped Ashian wash and change, and she was now sitting cross legged on the bed with her sketch book in her lap.

Van Helsing's shoulders sagged when Ashian spoke. Trying to remain calm, he pulled a chair from the fire and sat across from her. "You have no idea." They sat in companionable silence for several minutes, Ashian's pencil scratching softly. Van Helsing began again, "What were you and Madame Frescona talking about?"

"Just things I need to know about being immortal, about being a vampire, and oh, she mentioned that I have now taken Dracula's place as the single most powerful vampire on this planet." She continued sketching, but smiled at Van Helsing's shocked silence.

When he did speak it was at first somewhat incoherent but eventually formed to: "YOU'RE THE MOST POWERFUL VAMPIRE IN THE WORLD?!" He buried his face in his hands.

Ashian set sketch pad away and put a hand on Van Helsing's shoulder. "I promise, I won't be _near _as … as evil as Dracula. Gabriel," She pulled his head upward to look at her. "Don't you get it? We'll always be together now. Not to be sappy, but isn't that good?" Ashian was hurt by Van Helsing's lack of excitement.

Van Helsing looked at her incredulously. "No! It's awful! I work for the Vatican, remember? They're going to want you dead! It was possible to get around that when you were a normal vampire, but the Princess of Darkness? There is no possible way for us to be together!"

"Oh hang the damn Holy Order! Who cares a damn what they say or do? You are the left hand of God! You shouldn't take orders from anyone! Burn the Vatican for all I care!" She fought back tears and when she spoke again, her voice wasn't icy or flat, but for perhaps the first time since meeting Gabriel Van Helsing, it was thick with emotion. "Look me in the eye and tell me you don't love me."

Van Helsing paused, not wanting to go on. But he did, though it hurt him. He looked Ashian in the eye and said, "I don't love you."

Ashian blinked past the tears. "Liar." She stood, and so did Van Helsing, watching in pain as she took several feeble steps. She hadn't passed him when she collapsed. Instinctively he caught her and helped her stand to her full height. He tried to ignore how right it felt, but couldn't. This time it was Ashian who started the kiss, and he didn't fight it.

He was, however the one who broke it. She confidently sat back on the bed, all sign of weak knees gone. "You filthy little vixen." He half heartedly chastised her.

"_Now_ tell me you don't love me." She raised her eyebrows, knowing she had him caught.

Van Helsing chuckled and kissed her again. This time they fell back wards until they were lying side by side across the four-poster. "There, happy?"

"Very." Ashian put her head on his shoulders and let him sleep in peace for the first time in twenty years.

* * *

"So, how exactly did Dracula die?" Carl asked Madame Frescona. He watched in fascination as the demon, now identified as Hugh, bustled about setting tea on in the kitchen. 

They had intended to go to the library, but Thomas Elkins dog, which had heretofore remained hidden, had attacked them. Madame Frescona told Hugh to meet them in the kitchen. Carl wasn't sure what happened, but when Hugh came back, he seemed exceptionally pleased with himself and there was a bit of laughter shining in his yellow eyes. Carl assumed that the yappy little dog (the collar branded it as Elizabeth) would never be seen again.

"I told Mr. Van Helsing that Dracula's only weakness was emotion. I thought that to kill him, one had to make him feel something other than hate for once. But instead, it was Ashian's emotion that killed him." Madame Frescona took the teacup Hugh handed her as she spoke.

"How does – I mean did that work? Thank you." Carl took the teacup offered him by the phantom.

"Well, when a vampire feeds, it is not actually the blood that is their main need. Yes, it nourishes them, but what keeps them alive is the life force of the victim. They take on whatever the person being fed on is feeling. Most often, when Dracula fed, his victims were either brain-dead from fear or filled with hatred for him. When he fed on Ashian she had enough presence of mind to remember her life. Whatever emotion welled up in her transferred to him, and in turn reached his heart. The afore mentioned heart was so cold and numb from four hundred years of hate that the emotion he received from Ashian set his heart on fire, hence the spectacular inferno." She turned to Hugh, "Could I get some sugar, darling?"

"How would you know that?" Carl had yet to touch his tea; he was so enthralled with the new information.

"I had Hugh trail Dracula. Thank you, dearest." Madame Frescona took the offered sugar bowl from Hugh. "But I still I wonder what emotion it was that Ashian felt." Madame Frescona stirred her tea halfheartedly.

"Love. I think it was love." Carl murmured and then said to Madame Frescona, "It was love that killed him."

Madame Frescona quirked her mouth and though about. She was about o say something, but Gabriella walked in. "It was love alright. Have you seen the two of them upstairs? They look like doves in spring." Carl choked on his tea. The mental image of a dove with Van Helsing's coat and hat was rather amusing.

* * *

Ashian nodded to no one in particular as the silver screen went black and credits for "Van Helsing" began to run. Most of the people began to file out, but Ashian stayed through the credits. It was odd how that Hugh Jackman person looked so similar to Van Helsing. 

Of course, the real Van Helsing was much better looking. For one, his hair wasn't that long anymore, he had long since lost the hat and replaced the coat, and now had three fresh long scars lacing down his back. Come to think of it, she looked different too. Her hair was now about six inches long, and she didn't dress so conspicuously. Sure, she still wore trench coats everywhere, and at night she donned an old silk top hat, and… Okay, maybe she did dress conspicuously. Carl was still with them (he'd discovered the elixir of life) and the only difference in his appearance was that he no longer wore skirts.

"Robes. For the last time, Damnit, they were robes." And that, he'd learned mind reading from Madame Frescona.

"You cursed! Not very well, mind you, but you're a monk. You shouldn't curse at all." Ashian lowered her voice and wagged her finger, purposely quoting the movie.

"Actually, I stopped being a monk one hundred and fifty six years ago, so I can curse all I want. Damnit." Carl shot back.

"Whatever." Ashian steered Carl out of the movie theater. They walked in silence back to the Manhattan apartment that Ashian, Carl and Van Helsing shared. Van Helsing had left a note on the table, but as soon as Carl picked it up to read it the monster hunter burst through the door. Well, not burst, he wasn't allowed to burst through doorways anymore; the landlord hated it. Rather he stalked through and collapsed on the sofa.

"Well, did you two enjoy your day off?" Van Helsing said as he pulled his grimy t-shirt off and threw it in a heap left for housekeeping.

"I personally, would have rather been with you, no sentimentality meant. I knew everything that happened; I don't see why Carl made me go." Ashian rummaged in the fridge and pulled out three Pepsis. She tossed two to Carl who then tossed one to Van Helsing.

"Well, the whole thing was your project, it seemed only right that you see the final outcome." Carl waited several seconds before popping his soda lid. He had discovered a way to keep sodas from bursting by calculating air travel and pressure.

"Was it as good as you said it should be?" For months now Ashian had been manipulating minds and resources to get the movie made right, and for just as long, it had been to only thing she could talk about.

"Yeah, but the werewolves looked fake." Ashian sat on the back of the couch and rubbed Van Helsing's shoulders.

"Did that Hugh-what's-his-face do a good job?" Van Helsing leaned gratefully into the massage.

"For the most part. Poor man can't cry, though. Ashian was googling at him through out the entire movie." Carl sipped his Pepsi to hide a smirk.

"Was not!" Ashian said defensively.

"Bet you were." Van Helsing opened his own soda.

Ashian's only response was to pour her beverage on his head. "Go take a shower."

Van Helsing stood after her and wrapped her tight. Carl moaned and left for his bedroom/laboratory. And not a moment too soon; Van Helsing kissed Ashian. The kiss was broken by Carl shouting from his room, "Are you two done with your snog-fest?"

Ashian licked the Pepsi off her lips and whispered to Van Helsing as she fingered the three long scars lacing up his back, "Have you ever figured out how you got these?"

"No, nor do I care." Van Helsing kissed her lightly and left for the bathroom. "Alright, Carl, snog-fest over."

* * *

Seqeul or no sequel? Summary below!

_**Fallen:**_ Gabriel Van Helsing's life is as close to perfect as it has ever been. Living with his best friend and love intrest by day and hunting evil freelance by night. What could be better? But not long ago he woke in his bed to find it blood soaked, and the only sign of harm done was three interlacing cuts windingdown his back. Six months later, Ashian begins to have dreams again, dreams of what could be and what will be. A ghostly specter haunts Carl's laboratory. And now, Van Helsing is visted by a little girl clutching his old crusifix. Every night she asks teh same question: "Gabriel, why have you fallen?"

It's placed right after where this story leaves off, once again begining with Ashian's dream. This was just a pelmel idea and i have yet to decide teh out come and plot the major battles and so forth. I think i might concentrait on improving my X-men fanfic.

REVIEWS OR NO SEQUEL!


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